tamarack
[tam-uh-rak]
- an American larch, Larix laricina, of the pine family, having a reddish-brown bark and crowded clusters of blue-green needles and yielding a useful timber.
- any of several related, very similar trees.
- the wood of these trees.
Show More
Origin of tamarack
1795–1805, Americanism; compare Canadian French tamarac; assumed to be of Algonquian orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tamarack
Historical Examples
The timber growth—none at all or very scanty spruce and tamarack.
The Long Labrador TrailDillon Wallace
In the course of time Kagh came to the edge of a tamarack swamp.
Followers of the TrailZoe Meyer
But she began to confide in Tom after this evening of her return from the tamarack swamp.
Nan Sherwood at Pine CampAnnie Roe Carr
The lumbermen have little use for the tamarack and so have passed it by.
Conservation ReaderHarold W. Fairbanks
Once he rode with a party of boys and girls to Tamarack Lake.
The Trail of the HawkSinclair Lewis
tamarack
- any of several North American larches, esp Larix laricina, which has reddish-brown bark, bluish-green needle-like leaves, and shiny oval cones
- the wood of any of these trees
Show More
Word Origin
C19: from Algonquian
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 tamarack
n.
North American red larch, 1805, probably of Algonquian origin (cf. synonymous hackmatack, 1792, from a source akin to Abenaki akemantak "a kind of supple wood used for making snowshoes").
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper