Catawba

[kuh-taw-buh]

noun

a Siouan language of North and South Carolina.

a river flowing from W North Carolina into South Carolina, where it becomes the Wateree River.Compare Wateree.

Horticulture.

a reddish variety of grape.
the vine bearing this fruit, grown in the eastern U.S.

a light, dry, white wine made from this grape.

Origin of Catawba

1710–20, Americanism; apparently ultimately < Catawba (yį́) kátapu a village name, literally, (people of) the fork; perhaps via Shawnee kata·pa

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for catawba

Contemporary Examples of catawba

The visionary behind it, Nicholas Longworth was convinced Catawba would become the greatest grape in America, possibly the world.
America’s First Great Wine…Made in 1842
Jordan Salcito
November 23, 2013

Historical Examples of catawba

The flavor resembles that of Catawba but has less of the wild taste.
Manual of American Grape-Growing
U. P. Hedrick
Its parents are said to be Catawba pollinated by a wild stivalis.
Manual of American Grape-Growing
U. P. Hedrick
He burnt his superfluous baggage and crossed the Catawba river.
The Political History of England - Vol. X.
William Hunt
The Catawba crossed, the next stream of importance was the Yadkin.
Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15)
Charles Morris
Probably it was Uché on the south-west, and Catawba on the north.
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Robert Gordon Latham

British Dictionary definitions for catawba

Catawba

noun

plural -ba or -bas a member of a North American Indian people, formerly of South Carolina, now almost extinct

their language, belonging to the Siouan family

a cultivated variety of red North American grape, widely grown in the eastern US

the wine made from these grapes

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for catawba

Catawba

type of American grape, 1857, the name is that of a river in South Carolina, U.S., where the grape was found. The river is named for the Katahba Indian group and language (Siouan), from katapu "fork of a stream," itself a Muskogean loan-word.