# Chatauqua! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 12, 2024, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079 "2024-07-12T04:56:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/1 "2024-07-12T04:56:47Z")
Before looking it up, did you know the meaning of this word? (Not the city) I never heard that term before. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/2 "2024-07-12T05:08:47Z")
Yes, and I’d bet many women attended Chautauqua wearing chatelaine ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/3 "2024-07-12T10:30:26Z")
It appears quite frequently in Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, which I read years ago. So, yes. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/4 "2024-07-12T11:18:11Z")
Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/5 "2024-07-12T13:07:02Z")
I’d heard the term in connection with people of literary achievement, but didn’t really know what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/6 "2024-07-12T13:21:51Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > It appears quite frequently in Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, which I read years ago. So, yes. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/7 "2024-07-12T13:27:53Z")
I had encountered the term before and associated the term ‘Chataqua circuit’ with an itinerant speech circuit in the 1890s. I had always thought it was a political thing, however, I just read the wiki on it and found it was much more than that. It was a weird eclectic Frankenstein conglomerate of a whole bunch of different activities that took place under a tent. [Chautauqua - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua) ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/8 "2024-07-12T13:36:56Z")
Huh. My father’s family is from Chautauqua County NY, going back to the mid 1850s. Since I’m heavily into genealogy, it’s a word I’ve had to type many times. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/9 "2024-07-12T13:38:18Z")
I certainly did know, and that is only partially because of growing up in Chautauqua County and having attended some lectures and concerts at the original Chautauqua. I didn’t know that there were _other_ Chautauquas until later in life, but having been exposed to the original made this a fact I didn’t forget rather than an interesting tidbit that had no other context to anchor it in my memory. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/10 "2024-07-12T14:08:31Z")
I’ve heard the term. It was probably most commonly heard in the early twentieth century. It’s a place where you can go (for a week or so, I think, once a year) to listen to lots of lectures and such. The most famous one was the one at Chautauqua, New York, and the general term for such things came from that. I don’t know of any such current equivalents. ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/11 "2024-07-12T14:19:11Z")
I’ve only heard it as a Native American loan word used as a town’s name in Illinois. I’ve never heard it used for a traveling or stationary tent show or lecture hall. The Schaffner Players or “Toby and Susie show” was the only tent show I heard of growing up. I knew the son of the last people who ran that tent show before it shut down. (We did summer stock theatre together one summer in the 1980’s on the Golden Eagle - a landlocked “riverboat” dinner theatre.) The interwebs tell me the word “chautauqua” is Iroquois/Erie and may mean “two moccasins tied together”, “bag tied in the middle”, “jumping fish”, or “place where fish are taken out.” I also learned that Lake Chautauqua in New York has the shape of two moccasins tied together, and it is where the Chautauqua Institute is located. Is that where the tent show lecture hall tradition started? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/12 "2024-07-12T14:28:05Z")
Is it something which is sold at Taco Bell? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/13 "2024-07-12T14:29:35Z")
I thought it was a brand of bananas. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/14 "2024-07-12T14:39:56Z")
I only heard of it because of the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua > **[Big Top Chautauqua - Official Site](https://www.bigtop.org/)** > > Big Top Chautauqua is a small community organization with a big mission and an enormous impact. Our stage hosts international touring artists, regional performers, in addition to our original productions featuring our beloved house band the Blue... Brian ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/15 "2024-07-12T14:51:46Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Before looking it up, did you know the meaning of this word? Yes. But I’m (by USA standards) not all that far from Chatauqua, which still holds chatauquas; though a bit too far to get to them easily. – reading the thread, it occurs to me that I might also first have seen it in Zen and the Art, which I first read when I lived somewhat further away. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/16 "2024-07-12T15:01:34Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > It appears quite frequently in Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, which I read years ago. So, yes. > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Same here. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/17 "2024-07-12T15:36:34Z")
So one is in your general locale. You decide to attend. Do you say; _“I’m going to **the** Chatauqua”_ or _“I’m going to Chatauqua”_ ? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/18 "2024-07-12T17:06:09Z")
I think I first encountered the word in _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ which I read in college. I also regularly attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland Oregon, which [sort of evolved](https://www.osfashland.org/en/company/our-history/ashland-festival.aspx) from the chautauqua movement in the late 1800s, so I sometimes hear the word there when the festival’s history is discussed. BTW, the word is spelled wrong in the title of this thread, although it seems to be a common misspelling. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/19 "2024-07-12T17:21:23Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > So one is in your general locale. You decide to attend. > > Do you say; _“I’m going to **the** Chatauqua”_ or _“I’m going to Chatauqua”_ ? To me: - “I’m going to Chautauqua” means I’ll be traveling to a town of the same name (it turns out there are several in the US). - “I’m going to a/the Chautauqua” means I’ll be attending a Chautauqua-style event, which could be anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079/20 "2024-07-12T17:22:14Z")
I first heard the word as the name of a regional airline that operated flights on behalf of AA, I think, or maybe it was Delta. I never really put much thought into where the airline got their name from. ETA: It was actually all three legacies, AA, Delta, and United. > **[Chautauqua Airlines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua_Airlines)** > > Chautauqua Airlines, Inc. was a regional airline in the United States and a subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Prior to the shut down of operations, it operated scheduled passenger services to 52 airports in the United States and Canada via code sharing agreements for Delta Air Lines (as Delta Connection), American Airlines (as AmericanConnection), and United Airlines (as United Express). Chautauqua previously flew feeder services for other airlines via cod Ch... [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chatauqua/1004079.md?page=2)