Editing Adirondack Mountains (section)

== Etymology ==
The word Adirondack is thought to come from the [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] word {{lang|moh|atirǫ́·taks}} meaning "eaters of trees".<ref name="MW"/> The earliest written use of the name was in 1635 by [[Harmen van den Bogaert|Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert]] in his [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] to [[Dutch language|Dutch]] glossary, found in his ''Journey into Mohawk Country''. He spelled it ''Adirondakx'' and said that it stood for Frenchmen, meaning the [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquians]] who allied with the French.<ref>Journey Into Mohawk Country, 1635, Harmen Meyndertsz Van Den Bogaert</ref> Another early use of the name, spelled ''Rontaks'', was in 1729 by French missionary [[Joseph-François Lafitau]]. He explained that the word was used by the [[Iroquoian peoples|Iroquois]] as a derogatory term for groups of Algonquians who did not practice agriculture and therefore sometimes had to eat tree bark to survive harsh winters.<ref name="sulavik" />

The Mohawks had no written language, so Europeans used various phonetic spellings of the word, including ''Achkokx'', ''Rondaxe'', and ''Adirondax.''<ref name="sulavik">{{cite book|title=Adirondack : of Indians and mountains, 1535–1838|last1=Sulavik|first1=Stephen B.|date=2007|publisher=Purple Mountain Press|isbn=978-1930098794|location=Fleischmanns, N.Y.|pages=21–51}}</ref> Such words were strongly associated with the region, but they were not yet considered a place name; an English map from 1761 labels the area simply ''Deer Hunting Country''. In 1838, the mountains were named ''Adirondacks'' by [[Ebenezer Emmons]], the State Geologist for the northern New York State Geological District.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ees2.geo.rpi.edu/History/emmons.html|title=Ebenezer Emmons (1799–1863)|last1=Cherniak|first1=D. J.|author-link1=Daniele Cherniak|publisher=Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120527060623/http://ees2.geo.rpi.edu/History/emmons.html|archive-date=May 27, 2012|access-date=June 23, 2015}}</ref>