pomme de terre

[Koontz John E]

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"

Teton blo, Santee mdo, Omaha-Ponca nu, Osage to, Ioway-Otoe to, Winnebago
too.  Proto-Mississippi Valley is something like *pro, presumably from
*w(a)-ro, and the *pr cluster becomes *R in Dhegiha, Ioway-otoe, and
Winnebago.

Gilmore gives the Pawnee as its.

> 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.

Melvin Gilmore says, mdo, nu, etc., are Glycine apios.  Hugh Cutler's
foreward to the U of Nebraska edition equates this to modern Apios
americana Medic.

Gilmore says Psoralea esculenta refers to:  Santee t(h)iNpsiNna ~
t(h)ipsiNna, Teton t(h)iNpsila (Buechel also gives thiNpsiNla),
Omaha-Ponca nugdhe, Winnebago tdoke'wihi (= tookewihi) (and Pawnee
patsuroka). This is called the wild turnip or tipsin in some contexts.

Miner gives too=..ke'wehi (P1 toikewehi) as 'to be hungry' and tooke'wehi
t?e'e as 'to starve to death'.  Interestingly, Osage has noNppe=..hi
(stative) 'to be hungry', noNppe=hi ..c?e (active) 'to starve'.  The
Omaha-Ponca terms are essentially the same.

> 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. ...

It's certainly a striking resemblance.  The wa- prefix is used with
cultivated foodstuffs in Mississippi Valley Siouan, e.g., OP wathaNzi
'corn (plant)', wathaN 'squash'.

JEK