Why this word is great
PEMMICAN — [Noun] A concentrated food made from dried meat pounded into a paste, mixed with berries and rendered fat, and shaped into patties, or metaphorically, a speech or writing that is densely packed with information. From Cree ᐱᒦᐦᑳᐣ (pimiihkaan, "pemmican"), derived from ᐱᒥᕀ (pimiy, "grease, oil, lard") + -ᐃᐦᑳᐣ (-ihkaan, "hand made"), ultimately from Proto-Algonquian *pemyi. Unlike "jerky" (which is merely desiccated muscle) or "succinct" (which merely trims excess), pemmican is both sustenance and alchemy—fat binding memory, fruit sharpening endurance, sun and smoke pressed into a brick of slow-burning time. It is the dark, oily sheen of bison fat hardening in a birchbark box, the tart burst of crushed chokecherries against the earthy monotony of venison, the way certain paragraphs—like certain foods—can sustain a man for weeks. Survival, in the end, is a matter of density.