taro

Etymology

It is a borrowing from a Polynesian language:^[2][3][4][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Collins and the American Heritage Dictionary name borrowed from Tahitian taro and Māori taro,^[6][7][8] and the fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary took it as probably Tahitian.^[9] The OED notes that Cook found the word in the Sandwich Islands, now the Hawaiian Islands,^[2] while Barnhart and Etymonline compare Hawaiian kalo,^[5][10] and Partridge also cites Samoan talo.^[11] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Tahitian and Maori word to Proto-Polynesian *talo and Proto-Oceanic *talos, related to Javanese tales, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tales, probably ultimately of Austroasiatic origin, comparing Khmer, Mon and Santali names.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The food plant Colocasia and its starchy root: 1769, in Sydney Parkinson's journal of the voyage to the South Seas, published in 1773.^[2][6][10] Barnhart's first record is from 1779, in Captain Cook's A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean,^[12] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1770–80.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English from the accounts of Cook's voyages,^[2][12][14] and was used in attributive compounds such as taro-patch, taro-plant and taro-root from 1814.^[2] Morris recorded it in Australian and New Zealand English as a Polynesian word much used by the Maori, quoting a botanical work of 1846 that also gives the form tara;^[15] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise lists tara as a less common plural.^[6]

Timeline

• 1769 – the food plant Colocasia, grown for its starchy root.^[2][6]
• 1814 – attributive, in taro-patch, taro-root.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tropical aroid plant, Colocasia esculenta, grown throughout the tropics for its large edible starchy corm.^[7][6][16]
2. The corm of this plant, cooked as a vegetable.^[7][6][16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin