Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A preparation made from dried leaves, bark, and sometimes tobacco and smoked especially by certain Native American peoples.
- n. See bearberry.
Wiktionary
- n. A mixture of dried leaves, bark, and sometimes tobacco, formerly smoked by some Native Americans
Etymologies
- Unami kələkkəníikkan, item for mixing in, kinnikinnick.
Examples
“The red willow bark is known as kinnikinnick, and adds a pleasant fragrance to smoking tobacco in the aboriginal estimation.”
Hiawatha; a poem, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Illustrated by John Rea Neill.
“But I like to think that someday, maybe a century or more from now, a hunter might be sitting against that same tree in the fall and, should he or she dislodge that oddly tilted stone — which would be lichen-covered by then and gripped with a webbing of kinnikinnick — might notice the brass and understand that once upon a time there was another hunter like him or her.”
“Now Broken Thumb prepared a calumet, keeping it on his knees while he mixed tobacco and kinnikinnick in prescribed amounts.”
Centennial
“Making him two elk-horn picks, and filling his ikta with dried salmon and kinnikinnick, he climbed in two nights and a day to the summit.”
“Adam had risen early and decked every available spot with kinnikinnick until the room fairly glistened.”
“Her box was filled with kinnikinnick and she would go back.”
“She would willingly have rested had not her eyes spied the red berries of some kinnikinnick growing on either side of the path.”
“The search for kinnikinnick was not, however, her real reason for wishing to see Carver.”
“Last evening, just as Mr. Benjamin Jarvis 'guests were dispersing, she had made a hasty engagement with Carver to meet her the following afternoon and go for kinnikinnick up Cinnamon Creek.”
“Perhaps 'twill be easier anyway, for you'll find the kinnikinnick just after you leave the creek.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kinnikinnick’.
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From the Algonquin et al.
Words derived from the innumerable languages of native Americans and the First Nations of Canada. I want to shine some light on this underexposed etymological background to so many common (and som...
raccoon, persimmon, mummichog, caucus, bayou, caribou, geoduck, chipmunk, skunk, opossum, moose, squash and 84 more...
chained_bear "There is already a distinct chill in the air though it is only late July. Last night the temperature dropped below freezing, and this morning we woke to discover an inch of snow on the ground, clinging to the fireweed and the kinnikinnick."
—James Campbell, The Final Frontiersman (New York and London: Atria Books, 2004), 193 Sep 17, 2008
polymorph This plant is particularly valued for use in treating urinary tract inflammation.
I went looking for etymology and found this:
kiku. Tobacco. Compare kinnickkinnick (Ojibwe).
kinnikkinnik. Smoking mixture (from Algonquian language).
- Source (MS-WORD .doc)
Apr 8, 2007
reesetee Not surprising, tendrel! But I'll bet it was an interesting experience.... Mar 6, 2007
tendrel I've tried it once, made my heart race. Mar 6, 2007
reesetee Well, you could plant some bearberry and then, while leading a late summer afternoon tour of your garden, announce that you have here a beautiful kinnikkinnick hedge.... Feb 28, 2007
trivet Oh my goodness, yes! Now I only have to find a way to drop it into conversations... Feb 28, 2007
reesetee A mixture of bark, dried leaves, and sometimes tobacco, formerly smoked by the Native Americans and pioneers in the Ohio valley; or the plants used in this mixture, especially bearberry.
Gotta love this word. :-) Feb 28, 2007