tobacco

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The dried leaves of the tobacco plant, prepared for smoking or chewing.

   He gave up tobacco after years of smoking a pipe.

2. 2
   noun

   The plant that this leaf comes from, grown as a crop.

   Farmers in the valley have grown tobacco for generations.

Attested since 1588, borrowed from Spanish tabaco. The Spanish word could be from Arabic طُبَّاق (ṭubbāq, “Dittrichia viscosa”) or from a Caribbean language such as Kari'na or Taíno or multiple of them, from a word meaning "roll of tobacco leaves" or "a pipe for smoking tobacco," such as tabago (“tube for inhaling smoke or powdered intoxicating plants”).

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