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Glite Dictionary
Gitche Gumee

Gitche Gumee

1 9.9
An Ojibwe name for Lake Superior
  • proper noun
  • /ˈɡɪtʃi ˈɡuːmi/
  • Literature
: Gitche Gumee
  • The Ojibwe people refer to Lake Superior as Gitche Gumee.

Examples

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Gitche Gumee in his poem 'The Song of Hiawatha'.

  • The waves crashed against the rocky shore of Gitche Gumee during the storm.

  • Many travelers are drawn to the mysterious beauty of Gitche Gumee.

  • Many legends tell stories of Gitche Gumee and its mysterious waters.

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Gitche Gumee in his poem 'The Song of Hiawatha'.

  • Many travelers are drawn to the mysterious beauty of Gitche Gumee.

  • The Ojibwe people refer to Lake Superior as Gitche Gumee.

Surface Forms

Gitche Gumee main

Morphology

Gitche + Gumee

Gitche Gumee is an Ojibwe proper name for Lake Superior and its constituent forms are not English words with accessible meanings for an English B1 learner. Place names from another language are arbitrary labels rather than compositional phrases, so knowing the surface forms would not let a learner infer the meaning 'Lake Superior'.

Etymology

Gitche Gumee comes from the Ojibwe language and may come from two words, Gitche meaning 'big' and Gumee meaning 'water'. So the name means 'great water', which is why it is used for Lake Superior, one of the largest lakes.