# Indian Summer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [August 16, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128 "2002-08-16T02:19:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128/1 "2002-08-16T02:19:32Z")

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In this report:

[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmulligan.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmulligan.html)

Sam claims “Indian Summer” is “an ethnic slur.” But in this thread:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85989](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85989)

some obnoxious twerp actually opens a dictionary and finds “origin uncertain,” and proceeds to offer an alternate, more convincing etymology.

The nerve of some people…

– Beruang

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128/2 "2002-08-16T02:59:19Z")

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**Beruang** You’re getting ahead of yourself. Could you please wait until you have read my critique of the mulligan thread until you try to link it to something I said about “Indian Summer.” 😃

Seriously, your first link is to the “Mulligan” thread. I’m sure you meant a previous thread where I said something stupid.

I searched but can’t find it easilly. Could you relink?

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**Author:** ![Bindlestiff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bindlestiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindlestiff)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128/3 "2002-08-16T13:11:46Z")

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Yeah, Beruang.

I wonder how that constitutes a slur.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128/4 "2002-08-16T15:14:50Z")

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Guess I blew it. It never occurred to me that the **staffSam** had used the term “Indian Summer.” In my haste, I thought that you(Beruang) were referring to me(samclem) and something I must have said in one of our old threads about Indian Summer.

**Beruang**. Your link to the Random House site in the previous thread was clear—origin uncertain. One of the theories that they recount is Mencken’s that it was an ethnic slur.

If you mean that your theory is

> [@](#):
>
> The story I had always heard was that it was similar to “Indian corn:” i.e. not “false” corn, but rather “corn of the Indian country.”

, I would probably take your side. But, again, your theory is as proveable as Sam’s.

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**Author:** ![seans88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@seans88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seans88)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-summer/124128/5 "2002-08-16T21:19:04Z")

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StaffSam errs in implying that there is a generally-accepted etymology for “Indian Summer.” While the notion that Indian summer derives from the notion that such weather is offered only to be taken away (as in “Indian giver”) is seen as one of the more likely possibilities, the possibilities that the phrase comes from a belief that Indian summer weather occurred principally in Indian-held lands or during a time of the year in which Indians had more contact with white settlers (i.e., brought their crops to market) are also considered viable.

Sean