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tobacco road

n.
Informal

1. A poverty-stricken rural community.

2. Tobacco Road An area of central North Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, that is historically known for its tobacco production and that is home to a number of colleges and universities that have long-standing basketball rivalries.

[After Tobacco Road, a novel by Erskine Caldwell.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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