SNASS [snas] or [snaws] — noun. Meaning: Rain. Origin: Of obscure origin, likely a manufactured onomatopoeia. Possibly Kathlamet Chinook ch’as ch’as ch’as representing the noise of rain. A highly expressive word for rain, “snass” is said to have rhymed with the English “moss”, and is the foundation for many Chinook Wawa…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Mahsie
MAHSIE [MAH-sie] — verb. Meaning: Thanks, thank you, thankful. Origin: French, merci ‘thank you’. Sometimes rendered as ‘masi’, ‘mausie’ and even as “masiem”, the world was adopted from French as a way of saying ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you”, or to show that one is ‘thankful’, “wawa mahsie” (to give thanks,…...
