Also coonta, -ti. The name in U.S. of a species of cycad (Zamia integrifolia), found in the West Indies, Florida, etc.; also of the variety of arrowroot obtained from its stem.
1852. F. R. Goulding, Young Marooners, xxvi. 173. Harold discovered a fine patch of Coontah or arrowroot from which a beautiful flour can be manufactured.
1879. Pickering, Chron. Hist. Plants, 761. The coontie is a low palmetto-like plant, its trunk yielding the … white bread.
1883. Chapman, Flora South, U. S. (ed. 2), 437.
