more French conundrums

[Scott Tyler]

Leanne,
Nice list of stick words---types of trees and one bird.
I've got two devil's clubs growing in my back yard, I rescued them from a
housing development where the construction crews just bulldoze the forest. I
knew they were medicinal and I've seen them with leaves a foot across, their
prickly stems made me pay the price for moving them. They could be real the
"bois de diable".
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leanne Riding" <riding at TIMETEMPLE.COM>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: more French conundrums


> Balsam applies to resinous wood, I think we might more often say
> "pitch". In the old days, more commonly than today, all
> cone-bearing trees would be referred to as "Pines", and the cones
> of all these trees "pine cones." However the generic term "Pines"
> includes Pine, Spruce, Fir, etc. Europeans used the pitch of these
> trees to make turpentine which had medicinal uses. A famous brand
> of medicine which included turpentine, which more than likely your
> source was familiar with, was "Gombault's Caustic Balsam".
>
> Anyways, there is not much similarity between a pine tree and a
> maple tree, apart from the fact that they are both trees, so I bet
> that "kastik" and "kooo stik" is just a coincidence.
>
> I find it very funny that Vine Maple was called Bois de Diable,
> while the truly diabolical Devil's club, which can rip a hiker to
> shreds, was as far as I know, named something akin to "prickly
> tree". All of these bushes have such personality that I can't help
> relating a childhood anecdote about them. As kids, me, my brother
> and my cousins built a fort by the creek out of tarps and lumber
> and painted a sign which said "Devils Club". Our fort was quite
> well protected from all comers by maples and prickle bushes such as
> Devils clubs and black currants. All of those had palmate leaves
> like a maple, so I wonder if some broad classifying, similar to
> that with "Pines" are went on?
>
> The closest to "kooo stik" I know of offhand is "koko stik" for
> woodpecker (knock wood).
>
> I plugged the word "stik" in my word lookup tool and some results were:
>
> Toholal stik, hazel tree. Demers, Modeste (the "h" is one of his
> short stemmed h's. I guess I should make a font for that.)
> Latsikanstik, oak. Demers, Modeste
> Kalakwat stik, cedar. Demers, Modeste
> Kalakwahtie stick, cedar tree. Hale, Horatio
> Tlosh stik, cedar. Demers, Modeste
> Eena stik (beaver wood), willow. Hale, Horatio
> Kanawe stik, oak. Demers, Modeste
> Kastik, balsam. Demers, Modeste
> Oak, kull stick. Hale, Horatio
> Isik stick (paddle-wood), the elm. Hale, Horatio
> Koko stick (knock-tree), woodpecker.
>
> P.S. if you'd like to try that tool it is at:
> http://timetemple.com/index.php?option=com_cj_wordlookup
> I put both the english->chinook and chinook->english entries into
> the database, since they were often different!! Like Demers, et.
> al's "oak".
>
> If you want it to show all the plants, type in plantae
> and " animals " animalia
>
> It seems like the names were based on the uses of the wood. So
> "kooo" might be related to the plants uses. However the best CJ
> word I can find that might match is "kow", which means to tie,
> fasten. Perhaps, in reference to the bothersome aspects,
> "hinder?" :)
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, February 22, 2005, at 04:36 , Alan H. Hartley wrote:
> >
> > Mathews Dict. of Americanisms has "bois de diable. = vine maple... 1823
> > D. Douglas Journal (1914) 108 This Acer forms part of the underwood in
> > the pine forests... It is called by the voyageurs Bois de Diable from
> > the obstruction it gives them in passing through the woods." And "vine
> > maple..a small tree, Acer circinatum, of the Pacific Northwest, the
> > stems of which are often prostrate."
> >
> > Alan
> >
> > To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond
> > privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!
> >
> >
> =( : ] )-[--<
>
> - Leanne
> - homepage: timetemple.com
>
> To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately
to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!
>

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!