pomme de terre

[Michael Mccafferty]

The "pomme de terre" of the historical Illinois Country is Ipomeia
pandurata, the wild sweet potato vine. /mihkohpina/ is Miami-Illinois
('red potato'). Later historians often thought erroneously that the native
term referred to the white waterlily, whose Latin name escapes me at the
moment. N... t...

La Salle has a good ethnographic report on these potatoes. They account
for two or three native-created place names in Indiana.

Michael



On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Alan H. Hartley wrote:

> 1813 R. STUART Oregon Trail (1953) 153
>
> "we fell in with a large field of the root called by the Ottos "Toe" &
> by the Canadians "Pomme de Terre," they are but seldom of larger
> dimensions than a hens egg, with a rough warty brown skin, are never
> more than six inches deep in the earth, and when boiled, resemble very
> much in taste the sweet potato"
>
> Is this Apios tuberosa/americana (ground nut), which I confuse with
> Psoralea esculenta (Indian turnip, prairie potato, pomme blanche). I
> assume it's the same as Dakota bdo/mdo, Lakota blo.
>
> I ask for two reasons, one practical, the other far out:
>
>  1.) to confirm a new meaning for pomme de terre in the OED.
>
>  2.) to add to a continuing discussion on the Chinook Jargon listserv
> about the etymology of wapato. The latter first appears as wapto in 1805
> in the Lewis & Clark journals, with ref. to the lower Columbia where it
> is cited as a native name for the edible aquatic root. The OED etymol.
> Cree wapatowa 'white mushroom' doesn't seem very likely, and Howard
> Berman (IJAL 1990) has suggested Kalapuyan *-pdo 'wapato; potato'
> borrowed into Chinookan with its wa- added. Just fishing here, but the
> superficial resemblance bdo~pdo, both referring to edible roots, caught
> my eye. And then one can prefix the Ojibway and Cree wap- 'white' and
> introduce it into Canadian French and then into Chinook Jargon...
>
> Anyway, simply to learn the referent of pomme de terre would be enough,
> and much safer.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alan
>
>
>


Michael McCafferty
307 Memorial Hall
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
47405
mmccaffe at indiana.edu

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