Skookum

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Do you use this word as a descriptor? I like to throw it out on occasion over here in NW Montana I usually just get a blank look.

I remember years ago chatting with a local ex CG helo driver, he was describing flying the
MH-65 Dolphin. He said that thing is built skookum. I liked that expression & starting using it.

From the Googlator...

Skookum is a versatile word originating from the Chinook Jargon, a historic trade language used by Indigenous peoples and early settlers in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.
Depending on the context, it generally means strong, powerful, excellent, or brave.
The term spans several specific applications:
  • Strength and Reliability: It is frequently used in the trades and outdoors to describe equipment or tools that are heavy-duty, solid, and dependable.
  • Overall Quality: It can mean something is really awesome or of top-notch quality.
  • Historical Origins: Linguistically, it traces back to the Lower Chehalis word skwəkwəm, which originally referred to a ghost or monster. Over time, this concept of fearsome power morphed into the positive traits we associate with the word today.

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Been using the term pretty much all my life. Being native to this area, I thought the term was used every where, not just locally.
 
Salmo_g said:
Been using the term pretty much all my life. Being native to this area, I thought the term was used every where, not just locally.
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I'd be interested if it's in wide usage as well. Always thought it was a NW colloquialism
 
Skookum culture never crested east of the continental divide nor did it spread into the Great Basin.
 
Hmmm...very interesting.
We have land on Skookum Creek near Usk, WA.
From reading about its origins, I have to wonder if the name is a coincidence being that it's on the other side of the Cascades.
That said, it is close to the Kalispel Reservation.
I did some research/Googling and found that there is another Skookum Creek that is a tributary to the Nooksack.
 
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Never used the term, and only heard it used in jest...
Then again, Chinook jargon isn't spoken out here much, it's Tuwaduq along the canal.
 
Some tribes in the PNW use "skookum" to describe bigfoot/sasquatch-type creatures as well.
 
My grandfather (born in the very early 1900's) used the term "skookum" frequently, to describe something that was good, ie; "That was a skookum breakfast Stevie". He was raised in Northern California and lived in Nevada for the best part of his adult life. He was a cowboy and a logger, and once that got to be too tough - or maybe because he got hitched to my grandma and started having kids, he drove truck. I always figured "skookum" to be a cowboy word, no cultural appropriation intended. I'm told that his father, my great grand father, was a game warden covering Northern California. From what I understand, what he mostly did was shoot coyotes and catch the occasional poacher.
 
Another native term is that for PNW warm winter winds is the commonly used 'Chinook'.

As for worries about linguistic 'cultural appropriation'; different cultures have always borrowed words from the cultures they encounter. Thankfully nothing in this world is static.
 
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Canuck from Kansas said:
Skookumchuck Narrows, just outside of Sechelt BC - very powerful (many say the most powerful) tidal rapids - very cool little Provincial Park ...
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Skookumchuck is a destination for play boating kayakers. I never made it up, but had plenty of friends that did.
Skookum was also the name of a tree planting group - Hoedads - here in the southern Willamette valley.
 
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