Yuca

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fibrous tuber originating from tropical regions that serves as a food source and is rich in calories and carbohydrates
2. An underground plant part that provides nutrition and is frequently incorporated into various traditional cuisines around the world
3. A starchy root vegetable indigenous to warm climates which is often cooked and enjoyed as a staple food in many cultures

Etymology: Few people guess that the starchy root on a restaurant menu shares its name with the spiky desert plant in a garden bed. Both descend from the Spanish "yuca," which was also once written "juca." English took the word twice, and the two forms, yuca and yucca, are doublets: one word that entered English by different routes and came to name different things. The Spanish word is often said to come from Taíno, the language of the Caribbean peoples Spanish colonists encountered, but its exact source is unknown. It is almost certainly from an indigenous American language, though the specific language and the path it took into Spanish remain unclear.

Synonyms: cassava, manioc, bitter cassava, sweet cassava