![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cassava (kuh-SAH-vuh) - n., any of several American plants (genus Manihot, esp. M. esculenta) grown in the tropics for their edible tuberous roots; the roots themselves; a flour made from the roots.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
And here’s that pin we stuck into tapioca, which is made from cassava flour. Note that you have to leach the cyanide out before cassava root is edible. The other name for the plant, manioc, is (like tapioca) from Tupi. Also called yuca, source of which is unknown though it’s sometimes speculated to be from mainland Carib aka Kari’nja. [Sidebar: Yuccas are named after yuca, because Linnaeus confused yuccas and cassavas - weird mistake.] We do know the source of cassava, though: Spanish cazabe, meaning both the cassava flour (a now obsolete meaning) and a flatbread made from it, from Taíno caçábi/kasabi/casavi, both flour and flatbread (and not the plant - speaking of weird word shifts).
And as a bonus, one more food word from Taíno: guava (GWAH-vah) - n., any of several tropical American shrubs and trees (genus Psidium), especially P. guajava, which bears round, yellow fruit, and P. littorale, which bears smaller, yellowish to deep-red fruit; either of these fruits. Its name is probably from Taíno but could be another Arawakan language from the mainland.
And that’s a week of Taíno food words — next week is words from Taíno in other domains.
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
And here’s that pin we stuck into tapioca, which is made from cassava flour. Note that you have to leach the cyanide out before cassava root is edible. The other name for the plant, manioc, is (like tapioca) from Tupi. Also called yuca, source of which is unknown though it’s sometimes speculated to be from mainland Carib aka Kari’nja. [Sidebar: Yuccas are named after yuca, because Linnaeus confused yuccas and cassavas - weird mistake.] We do know the source of cassava, though: Spanish cazabe, meaning both the cassava flour (a now obsolete meaning) and a flatbread made from it, from Taíno caçábi/kasabi/casavi, both flour and flatbread (and not the plant - speaking of weird word shifts).
And as a bonus, one more food word from Taíno: guava (GWAH-vah) - n., any of several tropical American shrubs and trees (genus Psidium), especially P. guajava, which bears round, yellow fruit, and P. littorale, which bears smaller, yellowish to deep-red fruit; either of these fruits. Its name is probably from Taíno but could be another Arawakan language from the mainland.
And that’s a week of Taíno food words — next week is words from Taíno in other domains.
---L.
