tuckahoe

/ˈtʌkəhəʊ/

Etymology

From Powhatan tockawhoughe. The "person" sense implies that such a person was so poor as to be reduced to eating the root.

Why this word is great

TUCKAHOE — [Noun] The edible root of Peltandra virginica or the sclerotium of Wolfiporia extensa, foraged by Native Americans and used in Chinese medicine, or a term for impoverished settlers east of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. From Powhatan tockawhoughe, meaning edible roots or subterranean fungi, the latter sense emerging from the desperation of those who relied on such meager sustenance. Unlike "yam" (a cultivated, starchy staple) or "hillbilly" (a broad slur for rural poverty), "tuckahoe" carries the weight of a specific landscape and history. It is the gnarled root pried from damp soil, the sclerotium like a lump of hardened earth, the hollow-eyed face of a man who chews what others would not—a word that binds hunger to the land itself.

noun

  1. The edible root of a plant of species Peltandra virginica, used by Native Americans of colonial-era Virginia.“In June, July, and August, they feed upon the rootes of Tockwough berries, fish, and greene wheat.”
  2. A person, especially if poor and malnourished (or if implied to be), living east of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.“[…] at least until you either get poor Tuckahoe out of his present hobble, in furnishing so many strong suspicions against the sincerity of his former professions of patriotism, […]”
  3. The sclerotium of wood-decay fungi of species Wolfiporia extensa, used by Native Americans and the Chinese as food and as a herbal medicine.
  4. The flowering plant Orontium aquaticum.