puccoon
(pʌˈkuːn)
Forms: 7 pohcoon, pochone, poughkone, 7–8 pl. pocones, 8 pochoon, pecoon, poccoon, puckoon, 8– puccoon.
The Virginian Indian name of a North American plant or plants yielding a red dye: originally, as it appears, of the red puccoon or blood-root, Sanguinaria canadensis, N.O. Papaveraceæ, and hoary puccoon, Lithospermum canescens, N.O. Boraginaceæ. Now applied also to the hairy puccoon, L. hirsutum, and yellow puccoon, Hydrastia canadensis, N.O. Ranunculaceæ, the root of which dyes yellow.
| 1612 Capt. Smith Map Virginia 13 Pocones is a small roote that groweth in the mountaines, which being dryed and beate in powder turneth red. c 1616 Strachey Trav. Virginia (1849) 64 Their heads and shoulders they paint oftennest, and those red, with the roote pochone. Ibid. 192 Poughkone, the red paint or die. 1705 Beverley Hist. Virginia ii. iv. (1722) 120 They have the Puccoon and Musquaspen, two Roots, with which the Indians use to paint themselves red. 1714 Lawson Hist. Carolina 172 They sometimes use pecoon root, which is of a crimson color. 1836 Backwoods of Canada 243 The blood-root, sanguinaria, or puccoon, as it is termed by some of the native tribes. 1887 T. Hempstead in Harper's Mag. Apr. 677 Puccoon, and clematis with plumy locks. |