The
text below is quoted from the book "The Housatonic -
Puritan River", by Chard Powers Smith, published in 1946.
"Whatever
may have been the prehistory of the original Indians of Berkshire
County, Massachusetts, which contains the whole of the Upper
Valley, they yet performed the service of establishing the
principal and most enduring place name in the valley.
When
they immigrated, the came in from the west over the mountains,
and the place where they established became Wussi-adene-uk,
the “Beyond-the-Mountain-Place,” the country beyond
the mountains.
The Indians accented the first syllable, and, allowing for
the elision that would have occurred at the outset, the original
pronunciation would have been close to Wusadenuk or Wusatenuk.

Through
innumerable spellings by the whites, including Westenhook,
Westonock, Hooestennuc, Awoostenok, Ansotunnoog, Ousetonuck,
Ousatunick, Housatunack, House of Tunnuch (!), Housatonac,
and with the transference of accent to the third syllable,
it has reached its modern form, Housatonic.
As late as 1859, Princess Mahwee, the last pureblooded survivor
of the Scatacooks in Kent, said that it should be pronounced
Housetenuc.
Like
Potatuck, the place name was transferred to numerous features
of the region it described. The traveler in 1694 said the
place where he crossed the river - otherwise identified as
the Great Wigwam - was called “Ousetonuck.” Thus
the place name was attached to the principal village in that
place.
And,
at the coming of the whites, the Indians of the Upper Valley
were known as the Housetonucks, the people who lived in the
place beyond the mountains.
It was not until the eighteenth century that the name flowed
downstream to become generic for the whole River, replacing
“Potatuck,” “the Great River,” and
the other Indian and English names that had been used in the
Lower Valley."
An
overview map of the entire Housatonic
River Basin is available.
 
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