Talk:pocan

Etymology

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Phytolacca americana, American pokeweed, pokeweed, poke, pocan is a common, edible plant found in much of eastern North America, probably extending into the midwest. Century 1912 speculated that pocan was of American Indian origin. I'd guess they're right. There are other possibilities, as it was a common food among slaves. If you could keep an eye out for it, I'd appreciate it. Other names are garget and scoke (See Talk:scoke.). DCDuring TALK 00:49, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I'll see what I can find. I've commented about scoke on Talk:scoke; see also my edits to scoke and skokeberry. - -sche (discuss) 02:03, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

For poke / pocan, there is the possibility that it comes from an Algonquian word like pagan/pacan. Most such words meant "nut", but Europeans did sometimes transfer Native American terms for certain things onto other, different things.
Also, I can find a few books (including the OED) which make the suggestion that poke and/or pocan derives from Powhatan, as Stephen has also suggested on his talk page. That would make the terms doublets with puccoon. - -sche (discuss) 02:59, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I defer to the judgment of you and Stephen. I've known the plant for some time and had been a bit annoyed at the notion that pokeweed was poke + weed with no further explanation of where poke came from. This is more satisfying and consistent with the often repeated, but fragmentary evidence, including the supposed synonym Virginia pocan. BTW, one source suggested that the supposed synonym coakum (+ other spellings) was from more northerly tribes (related to scoke?) and that there was a "Louisiana" synonym "chongras". DCDuring TALK 04:34, 6 December 2013 (UTC)