tobacco

tobacco
\ \ [16] Tobacco was introduced to Europe from the Americas, and that is where its name came from too. It originated in a Carib word, and reached English via Spanish and Portuguese tabaco. What precisely the Carib word meant, however, is a matter of dispute. Some say that it referred to tobacco leaves rolled up into a cylindrical shape for smoking, while others maintain that it denoted a pipe for smoking the tobacco in. The word has spread to virtually all European languages (French tabac, German, Dutch, Russian, and Czech tabak, Welsh tybaco, etc), and only a few remnants of alternative terms remain: Romanian tutun and Polish tytun, for instance, borrowings from Turkish tütün, which originally meant ‘smoke’, and Breton butun, which came from pety, the word for ‘tobacco’ in the Guarani language of South America (source also of English petunia [19], a close relative of the tobacco plant).

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Tobacco — To*bac co, n. [Sp. tabaco, fr. the Indian tabaco the tube or pipe in which the Indians or Caribbees smoked this plant. Some derive the word from Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, where it was said to be first found by the Spaniards; others from the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • tobacco — (n.) 1580s, from Sp. tabaco, in part from an Arawakan (probably Taino) language of the Caribbean, said to mean a roll of tobacco leaves (according to Las Casas, 1552) or a kind of pipe for smoking tobacco (according to Oviedo, 1535). Scholars of… …   Etymology dictionary

  • tobacco — [tə bak′ō] n. pl. tobaccos [Sp tabaco < ?; perhaps an old Sp name transferred to the New World plant] 1. any of a genus (Nicotiana) of chiefly tropical American plants of the nightshade family, with hairy, sticky foliage and long tubed, white …   English World dictionary

  • tobacco — см. Приложение 1 (Nicotaia tabacum). (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • tobacco — tobacco. См. табаки. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • tobacco — has the plural form tobaccos …   Modern English usage

  • tobacco — ► NOUN (pl. tobaccos) ▪ a preparation of the dried and fermented nicotine rich leaves of an American plant, used for smoking or chewing. ORIGIN Spanish tabaco …   English terms dictionary

  • Tobacco — For the plant genus, see Nicotiana. For the American electronic musician, see Tobacco (musician). Not to be confused with Tabacco. Part of a series on …   Wikipedia

  • tobacco — tobaccoless, adj. /teuh bak oh/, n., pl. tobaccos, tobaccoes. 1. any of several plants belonging to the genus Nicotiana, of the nightshade family, esp. one of those species, as N. tabacum, whose leaves are prepared for smoking or chewing or as… …   Universalium

  • tobacco — n. 1) to grow, raise tobacco 2) to cure tobacco 3) to chew tobacco 4) strong tobacco 5) chewing tobacco 6) a plug of (chewing) tobacco * * * [tə bækəʊ] raise tobacco a plug of (chewing) tobacco chewing tobacco strong tobacco …   Combinatory dictionary

  • Tobacco —    Indigenous to the Americas, tobacco is a sacred and powerful plant in many indigenous cultures. Its intoxicating effects were well known and rarely used for recreational purposes. In some cultures, it was never smoked or ingested in sufficient …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

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