pemmican

English

WOTD – 23 January 2007

Alternative forms

• pemican

Etymology

From Cree ᐱᒦᐦᑳᐣ (pimiihkaan, “pemmican”), from Cree ᐱᒥᕀ (pimiy, “grease, oil, lard”) + -ᐃᐦᑳᐣ (-ihkaan, “hand made”), from Proto-Algonquian *pemyi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛmɪkən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

pemmican (usually uncountable, plural pemmicans)

1. A food made from meat which has been dried and beaten into a paste, mixed with berries and rendered fat, and shaped into little patties. [from 18th c.]
   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 239:

     I tried to eat some pemmican, but my mouth was too dry.

2. (now rare) A speech or piece of writing that is very condensed, conveying a lot of thought or information in few words. [from 19th c.]

Translations

food mixture

• Cheyenne: ame
• Cree: ᐱᒦᐦᑳᐣ (pimiihkaan)
• Finnish: pemmikaani (fi)
• French: pemmican (fr) m
• German: Pemmikan (de) m
• Lakota: wásna
• Pawnee: tápaharus
• Polish: pemikan m
• Russian: пеммика́н (ru) m (pemmikán)
• Swedish: pemmikan c

See also

• jerky

French

Noun

pemmican m (plural pemmicans)

1. pemmican

Further reading

• “pemmican”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.