Aduki

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small reddish-brown bean widely used in East Asian cooking, especially in sweet pastes and desserts ; the leguminous plant on which these beans grow
2. A tiny dark red legume popular across East Asia for sweets and bean paste ; a climbing annual plant of the pea family that bears these seeds
3. Small reddish beans common in Japanese and Chinese dishes such as red bean paste ; the bushy vine-like plant from which such beans are harvested

Etymology: "Aduki" is a shortened form of "aduki bean," the small, reddish-brown bean widely eaten in East Asia. The clipped version is the form most English speakers meet on packaging and menus, where the full phrase has been trimmed down to a single word. The bean itself has a Japanese name, "azuki," and English borrowed the crop's name through that language, so the spelling "aduki" reflects a transliteration rather than an English root. Because the word is a clipping of a compound, it carries no independent history of its own beyond the bean and its name.

Synonyms: adzuki, azuki