hackmatack
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Believed to derive from Abenaki, though no specific etymon has been found.[1][2] The term is first attested in the 1760s–90s,[1][2] when it was spelled hakmantak[1][2][3] and referred to dense forest.[1]
In European languages there was contamination between tacamahac, from Nahuatl, and various Algonquian words containing the final Proto-Algonquian *-a·xkw- (“hardwood or deciduous tree”), including the sources of tamarack and hackmatack,[4] as was already recognized by Chamberlain 1902.[5] This makes the precise Algonquian words involved difficult to recover. Compare the late 19th century German Low German term Hackemtackem (“tacamahac (medicinal resin)”).
Noun
[edit]hackmatack (plural hackmatacks)
- A larch, a tree of the species Larix laricina.
- A balsam poplar, a tree of the species Populus balsamifera.
Quotations
[edit]- 1867, Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1866, page 483:
- The hackmatack is remarkable for having a principle root, which sometimes equals in size the trunk to which it belongs.
Synonyms
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 “hackmatack”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. unabridged.merriam-webster.com ({{{1}}})
- ^ 1961, Maryland Historical Magazine, volume 56, page 29: Some 37 percent of the Constellation still remains in Newport. […] She retains knees from the hackmantack brought up in boats in 1796.
- ^ “hackmatack, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
- ^ Chamberlain, Alexander F. (1902 October–December) “Algonkian Words in American English: A Study in the Contact of the White Man and The Indian”, in The Journal of American Folk-Lore[1], volume XV, number LIX, American Folk-Lore Society, , page 260
