News and Reflections: Ancient place-names close to home: "Pogomkook" -- September 26, 2022

"Pubnico"

0005. "Cha du Coggonish (Abbott's Harbour Wharf) with Phare Ile Rouge (White Head Lighthouse) in the sunset (~2000)."

0128. "Église Saint-Pierre, Pubnico-Ouest-le-Centre (Saint Peter's Church, Middle West Pubnico NS (2005) from Pubnico Harbour at sunset. Used daily as a fishing and navigation landmark. You can see it from Lobster Bay."

0141. "A. G. d'Entremont, le boocher (my paternal grandfather, Ambroise Guillaume d'Entremont), and his horse King with meat peddling wagon (early 1900s)... I come from a long line of butchers. My grandparents raised 11 children. My grandmother only spoke Acadian French."

0160. "Cha du Village (Le Village Historique Acadien de la Nouvelle-Ecosse wharf in Lower West Pubnico; 2010).

0258. "Dumping Day (sunrise on dumping day 2012 at Dennis Point Wharf)"

0222. "Une team de boeuf (Traditions live on - Team of oxen hauling firewood at Great Pubnico Lake, a tradition as old as Pubnico (2015)."

Original photos and memories of Pubnico were graciously contributed
by Marcel Jean d'Entremont.

"Pogomkook"

From the Nova Scotia Archives, "Place-names and Places of Nova Scotia" (p. 564), we learn, "...the name, Pubnico, evolved through many variations from the Indian word Pogomkook, meaning "land from which the trees have been removed to fit it for cultivation."  To read the story of Pubnico, and its original name "Pogomkook," visit the Nova Scotia Archives, https://archives.novascotia.ca/places/page/?ID=564

Marcel Jean d'Entremont, President AAMS, quotes a different source, "As for the name “Pubnico,” historians tell us that it comes from the Mi’kmaq word “Pogomkook,” meaning "a place where in winter one can go and fish eels in the harbour by cutting holes in the ice.” (This is one interpretation). When the French arrived, they changed the name to "Pobombcoup", which in turn was shortened to "Pombcoup", and again to "Pubnico" with the arrival of the English. (Pubnico | Historical Acadian Village of Nova Scotia)."

Brown, T. J. (1922). Place Names of the Province of Nova Scotia (visit) https://archive.org/details/placenamesofprov00browrich/mode/2up is another go-to source for ancient place-names close to home.  From this source we find, "PUBNICO (Y.)—Named from the Indian word "Pogomkook," meaning "land from which the trees have been removed to fit it for cultivation." The old French spelling was "Pomboncoup," from which the transition to "Pubnico" was easy. It is also stated that it was called "Poubomcoup," after a French family of that name who lived there or thereabout in 1705, but it is more likely that the Indian derivation is the correct one. Of the Indian word "Pogbumkook," or "Bogbumkook," we find the following English and French variations "Pommicoup," Poumicoup," "Pobomcon," "Pignico," and "Pubnico."