katniss
English edit
Etymology edit
From the plant's name in a northeastern (probably Algonquian) Native American language;[1] compare hopniss, which is from Unami.
Noun edit
katniss (uncountable)
- (archaic, rare) Sagittaria spp., herbaceous perennial flowering plants that grow in water.
- 1771, Peter Kalm, Travels into North America, volume 2, London: T. Lowndes, page 96:
- KATNISS is another Indian name of a plant, the root of which they were likewise accustomed to eat, when they lived here.
- 1832, John F. Watson, Historic Tales of Olden Time, New York: Collins & Hannay, page 54:
- […] of the roots, they had hopniss (glycine apios), katniss (sagittaria sagittifolia), tawho (arum virginicum), tawkee (orantium aquaticum).
- 2011, Timothy A. Block, Ann Fowler Rhoads, Aquatic Plants of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, page 36:
- Known as “wappatoo” or “katniss,” the corms were prepared by baking, roasting, or boiling.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Peter Kalm (1749): "Katniss is another Indian name of a plant [...]" (quoted in Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, volume 33, and elsewhere). In Edible wild plants of eastern North America (1943), page 88, Merritt Lyndon Fernald and Alfred Charles Kinsey suggest the name is specifically Algonquian.