Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • S U M M E R 2 0 1 6 98 W I L D W ES T W O R DS W I L D W ES T W O R DS with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH Home DEPARTMENT HERITAGE HERITAGE HERITAGE What's your mental image of a ranch? Perhaps a log house and barns nestled amongst the trees, while nearby graze the cattle and horses of a thousand prairie hills? Whatever your 21st century vision of a ranch might be, it probably doesn't match the etymological history of the word. Zebulon Pike, U.S. Army general and explorer, was one of the first American writers to publish the word ranch in 1807, and his idea of one was a small shelter for travelers. at's because English speakers borrowed the word from the Span- ish rancho, which for centuries had referred to a hut or simple building used as temporary accommodations for soldiers, sailors, travelers and the like. Once the word arrived in Mexico and the Southwestern United States, a rancho became a small collection of dwellings. American merchant William Robinson wrote in an 1820 memoir, "A collection of houses, be their number great or small, if there be not a church, is called a rancho." So, over time, the rancho as a simple temporary shelter became a collection of dwellings. en there's evidence that by 1840, a rancho could also be a cluster of structures where animals, mainly cattle, were managed, and this is about where the word's final "o" was abandoned and the modern western ranch emerged. As an adjective, ranch, referring to the single-story split-level home, arrived on the American wordscape in 1950. As soon as 17th century English speakers arrived on the shores of the New World, they began absorbing words from indigenous languages. On the western plains, Europeans encountered nomadic peoples who facilitated their migrations in ingenious ways, includ- ing portable housing. As the seasons changed and the bison moved, so did the plains people, taking their dwellings with them. ey constructed tipis, conical tents of animal hide supported by an arrangement of slen- der poles. An adjustable vent at the tipi's apex allowed cooking smoke to escape, while the door flap at ground level provided fresh air intake. In bitter months, large stones placed at the bottom edges of the hide prevented wind from invading the tipi's interior. When the tipi was dismantled for a move, a circle of stones was left, outlining the perimeter of the lodge. If you know where to look, you can spot 'tipi rings' on unbroken prairie tracts. Once dismantled, the tipi poles were lashed to the backs of dogs and horses. e animals dragged the long poles behind them in a conveyance called a travois (a word first seen in print in 1847, from French travail, "arduous journey"). Tipi has become the general name for all portable lodge styles of the plains people. While each tribe had its own term for the structure, tipi came from the Dakota (Sioux) language. Versions of the word have been in print since 1743, presented variously as teebee, teepee, tepe, tepie, teepe, and ti pee. (It is not unusual to see Native American terms teased into a variety of spellings as English speakers struggle to orthographically represent a foreign language.) Tipi has emerged as the preferred spelling in recent years. Check out more of Chrysti the Wordsmith's Wild West Words at the Archives. www.distinctlymontana.com DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL TIPI RANCH

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