pemmican

American  

[pem-i-kuhn] / ˈpɛm ɪ kən /

Or pemican

noun

1. dried meat pounded into a powder and mixed with hot fat and dried fruits or berries, pressed into a loaf or into small cakes, originally prepared by North American Indians.

---

pemmican British  

/ ˈpɛmɪkən /

noun

1. a small pressed cake of shredded dried meat, pounded into paste with fat and berries or dried fruits, used originally by American Indians and now chiefly for emergency rations

---

Etymology

Origin of pemmican

1735–45; < Cree pimihka·n, derivative of pimihke·w he makes pemmican (mixing together the grease and other ingredients), he makes grease < Proto-Algonquian *pemihke·wa, equivalent to *pemy- grease + *-ehke· make

Example Sentences

Some tribes still make pemmican today and even market a commercial version.

From Salon • Nov. 9, 2023

It was designed to pound meat and berries to make pemmican.

From Washington Times • May 30, 2015

I read all the Swallows and Amazons books and hoarded the sailor speak – pemmican, hitch knots, port and starboard and wake – while having no desire whatsoever to run away to sea.

From The Guardian • May 30, 2013

There is also a gorgeous pemmican bag from about 1883, with a striped pattern of bright orange quills on gray horsehair; blue, beaded borders; and fringes made of small, conical metal elements.

From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2011

When the sledgemen came to rough ice they promptly dumped both boat and pemmican, realizing the impossibility of hauling them.

From True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World by Greely, Adolphus W.