Why this word is great
MANOOMIN — [Noun] The aquatic grain Zizania palustris, a wild, annual grass traditionally hand-harvested from freshwater lakes and rivers by the Anishinaabe and other Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region. Borrowed from Ojibwe manoomin, from Proto-Algonquian *maθo·mina, composed of a unique root *maθo·- (perhaps related to harvesting or goodness) and the noun final *-mina ("berry, seed, grain"). Unlike "rice," which denotes the domesticated, paddy-grown Oryza species, or "cultivated wild rice," a mechanically harvested commodity, manoomin is inseparable from the reciprocal relationship of a specific place and practice. It is the quiet knock of a cedar pole against ripe stems into a canoe, the scent of woodsmoke from parching over a slow fire, and the dark, chewy grain that tastes of the cold, clean lake it grew in—a food that remembers it is a covenant.