English

Proper noun

Catawba

1. A Native American people who inhabit the Carolinas: the Iswa.
   • 1970, a Catawba origin story, told and retold by various individuals, and printed by Charles M. Hudson in his book The Catawba Nation:

     There was a Catawba brave who took some pottery [to another tribe] to trade for bows and arrows. This chief [of the other tribe] had a beautiful daughter, and the Catawba brave fell in love with her, and she likewise fell in love with him. When the Catawba brave left, she asked her father for a bow and arrow. She shot it in the air in the direction the brave went, and then she went to get it. She kept shooting it in the air until she caught up with him.

2. (uncountable) The language of this people.
3. A river in the Carolinas which rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains and flows approximately 220 miles (350 km) before joining the Wateree River and ultimately flowing into the Atlantic.
   

   The path of the Catawba river.
   • 1998, Lawrence E. Babits, A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens:

     Cornwallis finally moved after Morgan's men. Left behind to cover the fords and delay the British, North Carolina general William Lee Davidson and a few men were killed as the British poured across Cowan's Ford. Once the British crossed the Catawba, the Americans had to get past another river, the Yadkin beyond Salisbury.

Synonyms

• Iswa, Issa, Esaw

Noun

Catawba ‎(plural Catawbas)

1. (countable) A member of this people.
2. A reddish American dessert grape.
   • 1950, Peter John Valaer, Wines of the world:

     The basic material for sherry is a mixture or a blend of dry wines from Niagaras, Delawares, and Catawbas or other white juices, which are sweetened and fortified and then blended with California sherry.

See also

• Wiktionary's coverage of Catawba terms
• Ethnologue entry for Catawba, chc

English

Southern catawba tree in flower.

Noun

catawba ‎(plural catawbas)

1. Common name for the catawba grape, a cultivar of North American Vitis labrusca.
2. Original and alternate common name for the various species of catalpa trees Catalpa.
3. The Catawba rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiense).