pomme de terre

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, David Costa wrote:
> This wanderwort might have come from Algonquian. The closest thing
> there is to a reconstructible Proto-Algonquian word for 'mushroom' is
> *wa:pato:wa~*ato:wa (the 'optional' *wa:p- on the front means
> 'white').

I looked at 'mushroom' in MVS, just out of curiosity.  For 'prairie
puffball' Gilmore gives Dakota (Santee) hoks^i' c^hekpa' 'baby navel'.  He
seems not to have collected terms in the other languages he looked at,
though he has some discussion of usage, say, for the Omaha.  He says the
Pawnee call it kaho rahik 'old kaho', referring to the older stage, which
is gathered for use as a stiptic, applied, for example, to baby's navels,
which he believes explains the Dakota name.

Looking in Swetland & Stabler (or Stabler & Swetland) and in LaFlesche, I
find mika exthi [mikka?exdhi] and mikkak?e for 'mushroom'.  This seems to
be suspiciously close to 'star'.  It could be analysed as 'racoon(s) dig
(it)'.  The xdhi part in Omaha may be explained by the term Gilmore gives
for 'corn smut', which is wahaba xdhi 'corn sores', where xdhi is
'sore(s)'.

I didn't manage to locate any additional terms for 'mushroom' in Dakotan,
though I looked briefly.  I also couldn't find an Ioway-Otoe term.  The
Winnebago terms were 'ghost' (or 'frog') plus 'umbrella' and 'ghost' + po'
(not glossed). There's a smear after po' in my copy of Miner, so perhaps
po' is only the first syllable.  I think the smear was in the original.

JEK