tamarack

Etymology

From Canadian French tamarac, believed to derive from an Algonquian word.^[1]

In the 19th century, some authorities questioned if tacamahac, tamarack, and hackmatack could be cognate to one another, perhaps all corruptions of one term, but such cognacy is unlikely.^[2]

Noun

tamarack (plural tamaracks)

1. Any of several North American larches, of the genus Larix; the wood from such a tree
   • 2005, Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road, Penguin 2008, p. 36:

     The women peeled tamarack bark for tea, dug through the deep snow in hopes of finding a few dried fiddleheads.

References