n. 1. Any of various plants or plant parts used by certain Native American peoples as food, especially the edible root of certain arums or the sclerotium of certain fungi. 2. See arrow arum. [From a Virginia Algonquian word meaning “root of arrow arum“ (attested in the spelling tockawhoughe in John Smith's 1624 English-language account of Virginia), ultimately from, Proto-Algonquian *takwah-, to crush, pound (into flour); compare Cree takwaham, he crushes, pounds, Fox tagwahâni, hominy, and Shawnee takhwa, bread.] |
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