DCHP-1 Online

chipmunk [< Algonk; cf. Ojibwa atchitamon head first, applied originally to the red squirrel from its way of descending a tree trunk] Earlier recorded forms such as chetamon, chitmunk, q.v., chipmonk, etc. indicate the influence of folk etymology in shaping the now general form.

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

  See also: big chipmunk  hackee  striped squirrel  

  • 1791  (1907)  [The Chippewa vocabulary of Long (1791) gives for squirrel chetamon. . . .]
  • 1832  (1838)  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. . . .