‖ bois d'arc N. Amer.
(bwa dark)
Also bow-dark, ‖ bodok.
[Fr., ‘wood of bow’.]
The wood of the osage orange, used by American Indians for making bows.
| 1805 Ann. 9th Congr. 2 Sess. 1138 At this place Mr. Dunbar obtained one or two slips of the ‘bois d'arc’. 1848 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Bow-dark tree (Fr. bois d'arc), a western tree, the wood of which is used to make bows with. 1853 R. B. Marcy & McClellan Expl. of Red River 98 (Bartlett), The bows [of the Comanches] are made of the tough and elastic wood of the bois d'arc, or osage orange. 1877 R. I. Dodge Hunting Grounds Gt. West 348 The best wood [for bows] is the Osage Orange (bois d'arc of the old French trappers, corrupted into ‘bow dark’ by plains Americans). |