October 26, 2013, the Sudbury Star
We can hear the rapids before we see them, a sibilant rumble that sounds almost like the name of the place we’re visiting.
Wabagishik, the word for both the whitewater ahead and the wind-ruffled lake behind us, turns out, however, to be only accidentally onomatopoeic. According to Linda Heron of the Ontario Rivers Alliance, who consulted a First Nations teacher for the definition, it’s the Ojibwe term for white cedar.