hackmatack

English

Etymology

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

hackmatack (plural hackmatacks)

  1. A larch, a tree of the species Larix laricina.
  2. A balsam poplar, a tree of the species Populus balsamifera.

Quotations
  • 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

References
  1. “hackmatack”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  2. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. unabridged.merriam-webster.com ({{{1}}})
  3. 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.
  4. “hackmatack, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
  5. 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, volume XV, number LIX, American Folk-Lore Society, →DOI, page 260
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