katniss

English

Etymology

From the plant's name in a northeastern (probably Algonquian) Native American language;[1] compare hopniss, which is from Unami.

Noun

katniss (uncountable)

  1. (archaic, rare) Sagittaria spp., herbaceous perennial flowering plants that grows in water.
    • 1771, Pehr Kalm, Travels Into North America:
      Their katniss is an arrow-head or Sagittaria , and is only a variety of the Swedish arrow-head or Sagittaria fagittifolia
    • 1832, John Fanning Watson, Historic tales of olden time, page 54:
      […] of the roots, they had hopniss (glycine apios), katniss (sagittaria sagittifolia), lawho (arum virginicum), tawkee (orantium aquaticum).
    • 2011, Timothy A. Block; Ann Fowler Rhoads, Aquatic Plants of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide, page 36:
      Known as “wappatoo” or “katniss,” the corms were prepared by baking, roasting, or boiling.

See also

References
  1. Peter Kalm (1749): "Katniss is another Indian name of a plant [...]" (quoted in Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, volume 33, and elsewhere). In Edible wild plants of eastern North America (1943), page 88, Merritt Lyndon Fernald and Alfred Charles Kinsey suggest the name is specifically Algonquian.

Anagrams
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