Malecite

Malecite, Various explanations of this name have been given. According to Chamberlain it is from their Micmac name Malisit, 'broken talkers'; Tanner gives the form as Mahnesheets, meaning 'slow tongues'; Baraga derives it through the Cree from mayisit or malisit, 'the disfigured or ugly foot'; Lacombe agrees with Baraga and gives the etymology as magi or mal, 'deformed,' and sit, 'foot.' Maurault's explanation is radically different from all, as he says it is from Maroudit or Malouidit, 'those who are of Saint Malo.' Vetromile says it "comes from malike, which in old Abnaki and also in Delaware means witchcraft," but adds, "hence the French name Micmac is a substitute for Mareschite," as he writes the name. According to Chamberlain the name they apply to themselves is Wulastuk-wick, 'dwellers on the beautiful river,' or, as given by Maurault, Ouarastegouiaks, `those of the river whose bed contains sparkling objects.

The Malecite belong to the Abnaki group of the Algonquian stock. Maurault makes a distinction between the Malecite and the Etchimin, but adds that "the remnants of this tribe and the Etchimins are called at the present day Malecites." Their closest linguistic affinity is with the Passamaquoddy, the language of the two being almost identical, and is closely allied to the New England dialects, but more distant from that of the Micmac.