Catawba or Catalpa?

You have letters - now what do you do with them?
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7407
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Catawba or Catalpa?

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:28 pm

Judith Hanlon sent me an interesting question last month: “Is it “catalpa or “catawba”? I’ve heard both, and seen both in print (gardening or fishing references), but “catawba” isn’t in any dictionary. Should it be?”

Go to the Language Blog to see how I responded.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8013
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Catawba or Catalpa?

Postby Slava » Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:32 pm

I was about to reply without reading the linked article. It says what I would have said, only in more detail. The two words are different things.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bbeeton
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 547
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:34 am
Location: Providence, RI

Re: Catawba or Catalpa?

Postby bbeeton » Mon May 23, 2022 10:49 am

A few additions to the good Doctor's essay.

Catawba wines are well represented among the products of the Finger Lakes area of New York. Not as highly valued as those made from the more "traditional" European grapes, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I learned the local name "cigar tree" for the catalpa growing up in Baltimore. I didn't learn the name catalpa until much more recently; we have one in our back yard here in Rhode Island. No catalpa worms though. (Fishing worms around here tend to be "night crawlers".) But, until the tree was trimmed after a windstorm, it was ground zero for a neighborhood woodpecker's drumming, which was always a welcome harbinger of spring. (And I do miss that!) The catalpa is considered a "trash tree" or weed in this area, and can be found on stream banks and similar environments. As far as I know, it's not planted intentionally, but makes its own way.

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: Catawba or Catalpa?

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Sep 30, 2022 7:25 pm

In England I have heard the catalpa called an Indian bean tree. Call it what you like but don't set one out in your yard. There was one in my back yard when I moved here 60 years ago. It was the first to go.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


Return to “Spelling”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Amazon [Bot] and 8 guests