pomme de terre

[Rankin, Robert L]

All of that is very interesting in light of the fact that the word for
'mushroom' in one of the Muskogean languages, Creek I think, is /pato/.
That makes it look like one of those "wanderwoerter" that we sometimes find
all over the hemisphere (as I recall mak 'hand' and wat 'boat' are others).


The Siouan form would come from a */-to/ root with a *wa- or *wi- prefix
that typically undergoes syncope to *wto and thence the various mdo, blo,
do, ato, etc. in the different languages.  It may have been a cover term for
a variety of slightly different tubers including the root of the common
sunflower or "Jerusalem artichoke", so named because it is neither from
Jerusalem nor is it an artichoke.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan H. Hartley
To: Siouan
Sent: 2/3/02 11:16 AM
Subject: pomme de terre

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