“The Nor’west” is probably Canadian/Métis French “nord-ouest”
I just wanted to drop a note to point out that the much-overused phrase “The Nor’west” in relation to our region’s fur-trade history is probably Canadian/Métis French, nord-ouest!
That etymology would explain the “th”-less pronunciation.
Nearly as I can make out from Google Ngram Viewer (see the chart above), “nor’west” — coded in orange — was never a serious competitor against “northwest” in English, during the relevant 19th century.
So, despite the Englishy spelling “nor’west”, and the word’s excessive and kinda romanticizing use in histories of this region…
…it may be realistic to turn to the only major fur-trade language of North America before Chinook Jargon’s ascendancy.
Canadian/Métis French was the main language of the North West [huh!] Company.
The overland fur trade operated originally from what’s now eastern Canada, into regions to the northwest.
Thus, nord-ouest.
There’s also the matter of fur trade-descended families having the surname Norwest.
That, too, seems surely French in origin to me. It’s a name of Métis people in western Canada and of folks at Grand Ronde Reservation, Oregon…
