Bows

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Bruce Ingham wrote:

> Has anyone got an etymology for Lakota itazipa 'bow'.  I may
>  have missed it in all the flurry of activity over Dheghiha and
> Chikasaw. Incidentally you mention the possible original measning
> may have been 'blow pipe'.  A parallel case is that Persian tir
> kamaan literally 'arrow (and) bow' passes into some arabic dialects
> as telkammaan 'catapult'.

I think most likely is ita + zipa, with ita representing an analogically
modified borrowing mita 'bow', and zipa being something like 'thin',
presumably referring to the thinned structure of the bow staff.  However,
this is just a guess as far as zipa.  I'm pretty sure of ita < mita < some
Algonquian source.