DCHP-1 Online

hackmatack Various spellings [< Algonk.; cf. Abnaki akemantak wood for snowshoes] Esp. Maritimes

• n. any of several evergreens, especially the common larch, or tamarack; also, the wood of such trees.

  See also: tamarack ((n.))   

  • 1774  (1945)  [This town . . . affords great store of fine timber [including] tackamahacka, or juniper. . . .]
  • 1823  Natural forest-trees are elm . . . white and yellow pine . . . hackmatack or juniper. . . .
  • 1840  the hackmatac . . . is found in the largest quantities in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
  • 1949  "Well . . . first we took roots of the spruce or hackmatack, about so thick. . . ."
  • 1957  "Hackmatack" to an Easterner is a shipbuilding term, but to the Westerner it is a larch or tamarack.