piskunn.
/ˈpɪskən/, U.S. /ˈpɪskən/ Now historical.
A North American Indian trap for buffalo, consisting of a natural or artificial canyon leading to a steep drop, over which large numbers of buffalo are stampeded, usually into an enclosure.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > equipment > trap or snare > [noun] > pit trap
pitOE
pitfalla1387
trapfall1596
trap-pit1652
trap-ditch1657
pit trap1751
well trap1819
downfall1856
hopo1866
piskun1892
1892 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 281 In the later days of the pískŭn, the man who brought the buffalo went to them on horseback, riding a white horse.
1929 E. D. Branch Hunting of Buffalo ii. 35 The piskun was surer and safer than the human trap; it was an enclosed pen into which the buffalo were driven.
1943 J. K. Howard Montana 23 Often buffalo were driven over cliffs, the ‘buffalo runs’ or ‘pishkuns’ under which Montanans still find rich hoards of arrowheads and other Indian implements.
1952 J. K. Howard Strange Empire 294 Nevertheless some native methods of killing buffalo were wasteful. Such were the piskuns and pounds, use of which, however, was generally abandoned by the Indians some time before the herds disappeared.
1975 C. Taylor Warriors of Plains 19 There were many dead in the piskun, and the men were killing those that were left alive.
2000 Reason (Nexis) Mar. 72 To complete the picture of camp life near a piskun, Krech, a Brown University anthropologist, reminds us that 200 to 300 people would be living near the stench of all that rotting meat without toilet facilities.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1892