close
Advertisement

Origin and history of truffle

truffle(n.)

type of edible underground fungus, 1590s, from French trufle (14c.), with unetymological -l-, apparently via Old Provençal trufa, metathesized from Late Latin tufera (plural), cognate of Latin tuber "edible root." Another theory (in Century Dictionary) notes Italian tartuffo (Milanese tartuffel) "potato," supposedly from terræ tuber. Extended 1926 to powdered, round chocolates that look like truffles.

Compare Tartuffe. Middle English had truferie (early 15c.), "piece of nonsense, something of little importance," from Old French.

also from 1590s

Entries linking to truffle

Tartuffe(n.)

"pretender to piety, religious hypocrite," 1670s, from name of the principal character in the comedy of the same name by Molière (1664), apparently from Old French tartuffe "truffle" (see truffle), perhaps chosen for suggestion of concealment in Tartuffe's hypocrisy, or "in allusion to the fancy that truffles were a diseased product of the earth" [New International Encyclopedia, 1905]. Tartufo is said to have been the name of a hypocritical character in Italian comedy.

*teue-

*teuə-, also *teu-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to swell."

It might form all or part of: butter; contumely; creosote; intumescence; intumescent; protuberance; protuberant; psychosomatic; somato-; -some (3) "body, the body;" soteriology; Tartuffe; thigh; thimble; thousand; thole (n.); thumb; tumescent; tumid; tumor; truffle; tuber; tuberculosis; tumult; tyrosine.

It might also be the source of: Avestan tuma "fat;" Greek tylos "callus, lump;" Latin tumere "to swell," tumidus "swollen," tumor "a swelling;" Lithuanian tukti "to become fat;" Lithuanian taukas, Old Church Slavonic tuku, Russian tuku "fat of animals;" Old Irish ton "rump."

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    potato
    Kartoffel (17c.) is a dissimilation from tartoffel, ultimately from Italian tartufolo (Vulgar Latin *territuberem), originally "truffle...
    rebut
    c. 1300, rebouten, "to thrust back," from Old French reboter, rebuter "to thrust back," from re- "back" (see re-) + boter "to strike, push," from a Germanic source (from Proto-Germanic buttan, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike"). Also in Middle English "assail (someone) with violen
    brute
    early 15c., "of or belonging to animals, non-human," from Old French brut "coarse, brutal, raw, crude," from Latin brutus "heavy, dull, stupid, insensible, unreasonable" (source also of Spanish and Italian bruto), said to be an Oscan word, from PIE *gwruto-, suffixed form of root
    fungus
    1520s, "a mushroom," from Latin fungus "a mushroom, fungus;" used in English at first as a learned alternative to mushroom (funge was used in this sense late 14c.). The Latin word is believed to be cognate with (or derived from) Greek sphongos, the Attic form of spongos "sponge"
    candy
    late 13c., "crystallized sugar," from Old French çucre candi "sugar candy," ultimately from Arabic qandi, from Persian qand "cane sugar," probably from Sanskrit khanda "piece (of sugar)," perhaps from Dravidian (compare Tamil kantu "candy," kattu "to harden, condense"). The sense
    vegetable
    early 15c., "capable of life or growth; growing, vigorous;" also "neither animal nor mineral, of the plant kingdom, living and growing as a plant," from Old French vegetable "living, fit to live," and directly from Medieval Latin vegetabilis "growing, flourishing," from Late Lati
    chocolate
    c. 1600, from Mexican Spanish chocolate, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) chocola-tl, "chocolate," and/or cacahua-tl "chocolate, chocolate bean." With a-tl "water." In the first form, the first element might be related to xocalia "to make something bitter or sour" [Karttunen]. Made with co
    obedience
    c. 1200, "the practice or virtue of submission to a higher power or authority;" late 14c., "dutiful compliance with a command or law," from Old French obedience "obedience, submission" (12c.), from Latin oboedientia "obedience," abstract noun from oboedientem (nominative oboedien
    countenance
    mid-13c., contenaunce, "behavior, bearing, conduct, manners;" early 14c., "outward appearance, looks," from Old French contenance "demeanor, bearing, conduct," from Latin continentia "restraint, abstemiousness, moderation," literally "way one contains oneself," from continentem,
    replenish
    mid-14c., replenishen, "provide" with food or drink, also riches, beauty, etc., from Old French repleniss-, extended present-participle stem of replenir "to fill up," from re-, here perhaps an intensive prefix based on the notion of "fill repeatedly," thus "fill completely" (see

    Share truffle

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near truffle
    Advertisement