_Penobscot_, a corruption of the Abnaki _pa[n]na[oo]a[n]bskek_, was
originally the name of a locality on the river so called by the
English. Mr. Moses Greenleaf, in a letter to Dr. Morse in 1823, wrote
'_Pe noom´ ske ook_' as the Indian name of Old Town Falls, "whence the
English name of the River, which would have been better,
_Penobscook_." He gave, as the meaning of this name, "Rocky Falls."
The St. Francis Indians told Thoreau, that it means "Rocky River."[34]
'At the fall of the rock' or 'at the descending rock' is a more nearly
exact translation. The first syllable, _pen-_ (Abn. _pa[n]na_)
represents a root meaning 'to fall from a height,'--as in
_pa[n]n-tek[oo]_, 'fall of a river' or 'rapids;' _pena[n]-ki_, 'fall
of land,' the descent or downward slope of a mountain, &c.

[Footnote 34: Maine Woods, pp. 145, 324.]

_Keht-ompskqut_, or 'Ketumpscut' as it was formerly written,[35]--'at
the greatest rock,'--is corrupted to _Catumb_, the name of a reef off
the west end of Fisher's Island.

[Footnote 35: Pres. Stiles's Itinerary, 1761.]

_Tomheganomset_[36]--corrupted finally to 'Higganum,' the name of a
brook and parish in the north-east part of Haddam,--appears to have
been, originally, the designation of a locality from which the Indians
procured stone suitable for making axes,--_tomhegun-ompsk-ut_, 'at the
tomahawk rock.' In 'Higganompos,' as the name was sometimes written,
without the locative affix, we have less difficulty in recognizing the
substantival _-ompsk_.