Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tacamahac

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: tacama-hac
IPA

18

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A bitter balsamic resin or resinous exudation obtained from tropical American trees of the family Burseraceae (Bursera tomentosa and Icica tacamahaca), from East Indian trees of the genus Calophyllum, or from the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera).

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Any tree yielding tacamahac resin, especially, in North America, balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) or balm of Gilead.

Countable; Uncountable

Etymology

From Spanish, from Nahuatl thecomahaca, to use the spelling of Hernandez 1614. In European languages there was contamination between tacamahac and various Algonquian words containing the final Proto-Algonquian *-a·xkw- (“hardwood or deciduous tree”), including the sources of tamarack and hackmatack, as was already recognized by Chamberlain 1902.

Origin

Source language: Spanish

Word Breakdown

Root: -, tecomahaca, *-a·xkw-

Usage

Inflected Forms

tacamahacs (plural) tacamahaca (alternative)

Synonyms

hackmatack tamarack balsam poplar populus balsamifera

Questions

What does tacamahac mean?: A bitter balsamic resin or resinous exudation obtained from tropical American trees of the family Burseraceae (Bursera tomentosa and Icica tacamahaca), from East Indian trees of the genus Calophyllum, or from the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera).
Where does tacamahac come from?: It is traced to Spanish.

How to pronounce tacamahac

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