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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sumac

Sumac \Su"mac\, Sumach \Su"mach\, n. [F. sumac, formerly sumach (cf. Sp. zumaque), fr. Ar. summ[=a]q.] [Written also shumac.]

  1. (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Rhus, shrubs or small trees with usually compound leaves and clusters of small flowers. Some of the species are used in tanning, some in dyeing, and some in medicine. One, the Japanese Rhus vernicifera, yields the celebrated Japan varnish, or lacquer.

  2. The powdered leaves, peduncles, and young branches of certain species of the sumac plant, used in tanning and dyeing.

    Poison sumac. (Bot.) See under Poison.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sumac

also sumach, c.1300, "preparation of dried, chopped leaves of a plant of the genus Rhus" (used in tanning and dyeing and as an astringent), from Old French sumac (13c.), from Medieval Latin sumach, from Arabic summaq, from Syrian summaq "red." Of the tree itself from 1540s; later applied to a North American plant species.

Wiktionary
sumac

n. 1 Any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus ''Rhus'' and other genera in Anacardiaceae. 2 A sour spice popular in the Eastern Mediterranean made from the berry of (vern: tanner's sumac) ((taxlink Rhus coriaria species noshow=1)).

WordNet
sumac
  1. n. wood of a sumac

  2. a shrub or tree of the genus Rhus (usually limited to the non-poisonous members of the genus) [syn: sumach, shumac]

Wikipedia
Sumac

Sumac ( Assyrian: ܣܘܼܡܵܩܵܐ "Sumaq" red-red shift-turning red, , or ; also spelled sumach) is any one of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in East Asia, Africa and North America.

Sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of . The leaves are spirally arranged; they are usually pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are in dense panicles or spikes long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals. The fruits form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs. The dried drupes of some species are ground to produce a tangy crimson spice.

Sumacs propagate both by seed ( spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new shoots from rhizomes, forming large clonal colonies.

The word 'sumac' traces its etymology from Old French sumac (13th century), from Mediaeval Latin sumach, from Arabic , from Syriac - meaning "red".

Sumac (disambiguation)

Sumac may refer to:

  • Soumak rug (also spelt Soumakh, Sumak, Sumac, or Soumac), a type of weft-wrapped flatwoven Oriental rug
  • Sumac (band), a 2010s American/Canadian rock band
  • Sumac, any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera
    • A spice made from the plant Rhus coriaria
    • Poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernix (formerly classified as Rhus vernix)
  • Yma Sumac, a Peruvian folk and Latin singer
  • Operation Sumac, a series of military exercises conducted by the U.S. Navy
  • Sumac Centre, an independent community and social centre in Nottingham, UK
  • Stanford University Mathematics Camp, a competitive summer mathematics program for rising high school juniors and seniors
Sumac (band)

Sumac (stylized as SUMAC) is an American/Canadian rock band that formed in 2014. It features the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) and Vashon, Washington-based Aaron Turner ( Mamiffer, Old Man Gloom, ex- Isis). Sumac released its debut album The Deal through Profound Lore Records in 2015.

Usage examples of "sumac".

The yard was filled with weeds and trash, along with a riot of sumac and ailanthus bushes and a pair of dead oaks.

This is an economical proceeding in many cases, especially in working with many of the old tannin materials, like sumac, divi-divi, myrobalans, and the modern direct dyes, which during the dyeing operations are not completely extracted out of the bath, or in other words the dye-bath is not exhausted of colouring matter, and therefore it can be used again for another lot of goods simply by adding fresh material to make up for that absorbed by the first lot.

The brush here was mostly sumac and redbud, with waist-high tangles of bramble and clumps of pine that rose above his head.

The tips of the green pines, the crests of the silver spruces, waved about masses of vivid gold aspen trees, and wonderful cerise and flaming red of maples, and crags of yellow rock, covered with the bronze of frostbitten sumac.

This was srub, a beverage in local repute, of questionable nature, but suspected of owing its tint and sharpness to some kind of syrup derived from the maroon-colored fruit of the sumac.

The top of the rise was covered by a dense stand of sumac and bay laurel.

Passing through a mix of black locust, crabapple, and sumac, he tracked it to a jumble of rocks.

The neat and practical fields men plowed and nurtured rode side by side with the tangled lushness of the live oaks and moss, the ubiquitous sumac, the ribbons of dark water that could never, would never, be truly tamed.

We also have various odds and ends of military uniform that we can dye, and we even got some pots of copperas and sassafras and sumac dyes.

She had managed to find some sumac after all, and she held forth the basket as a kind of peace offering when Dacey looked up at her.

Now it was thick with weeds and poison sumac, rows of dead trees lining either side, their claw like branches reaching into the gray sky.

Beyond is an old stake fence overgrown with drifts of kudzu and what might be poison sumac.

The vegetation changed from pine and manzanita to aspen and acacia, with long vinelike tendrils of wild strawberries growing parasitically over the rock face, intermixed with ferns and bottlebrush and poison sumac.

Mrs Thompson's house was one of those dark, rambling old Connecticut houses that stand away from the road, overhung by pin oaks and poison sumac bushes, its grounds black and muddy but overgrown with unnaturally green grass.

She looked for the shiny leaves that meant poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac, and didn't see any .