Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

Because European immigrants to the Americas had no names for most indigenous New World plants and animals, they relied on native terms. Opossum, raccoon, persimmon, avocado, cougar, moose, tomato, chocolate -- all these are native American words adopted and modified by English speakers.

Add the word hickory to this list. Early colonists in the North American east and south found the durable wood of this deciduous tree excellent for ax and hatchet handles, for the rims and spokes of wheels, for singletrees and buggy shafts. Hickory switches were used on recalcitrant children and mules, and hickory smoke was considered best for curing hams and bacons. The 7th U.S. President, Andrew Jackson, was nicknamed "Old Hickory" for his steadfastness and endurance in battle.

The native people of North America used hickory nuts and bark for food and dyes. The Algonquins of the east coast prized a beverage made from this tree; an oily, milky looking liquid of pounded hickory nuts and water. The name hickory comes from the Algonquin word for this nutritious beverage, which was powcohiccora, or at least, that's what it sounded like to 17th century Europeans, who recorded it that way in about 1618. The word was subjected to many spellings and pronounciations over the decades, but hickory became the standard in the early 19th century.

Radio Script > Hickory