chipmunk

[< Algonk; cf. Ojibwa atchitamon head first, applied originally to the red squirrel from its way of descending a tree trunk]

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Earlier recorded forms such as chetamon, chitmunk, q.v., chipmonk, etc. indicate the influence of folk etymology in shaping the now general form.

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any one of several small striped rodents, resembling squirrels, of the family Sciuridae.

Quotations

1791

[The Chippewa vocabulary of Long (1791) gives for squirrel chetamon. . . .]

1832

With the exception of the aforesaid chipmunk, no living thing crossed our path during our . . . journey in the woods.

1961

. . . one man had seen a chipmunk playing around the shanty. . . .