truffle

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French trufle, also troufle, the fungus (before 1406),^[2][3][4] formed from truffe with the diminutive suffix -le;^[2] Etymonline calls the -l- unetymological.^[4] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the ODE and Ayto think the word probably came through Dutch truffel.^[5][6][7][8] The French word is from Old Occitan trufa,^[2][3][9][8] from Late Latin tufera,^[2][3] an alteration of the plural of Latin tūber (“lump, swelling, truffle”),^{[2][9][8][10]} probably after an Oscan or Umbrian form.^[2][3][11] The OED explains the change of gender by the Latin neuter plural being treated as a feminine singular.^[2][12] In Old French the word also meant a trick or jest, perhaps because truffles are hard to find.^[2] Weekley and Etymonline also cite Italian tartuffo, and its diminutive, the source of German Kartoffel (“potato”).^[12][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An edible underground fungus: 1591, in F. Sparry's translation of Cattan's Geomancie.^[2][3][10]

Semantic evolution

The fungus, prized as a delicacy, kept its name;^[2][13] Johnson (1755) quoted Ray on Italian truffle hunters tying a cord to a pig's hind leg.^[13] From 1858 the word was used figuratively.^[2] A small round chocolate sweet was called a truffle after the French truffe de chocolat, from its shape and the fungus's status as a delicacy:^[2] the OED's first record is from 1899, while Etymonline dates this sense to 1926 and Ayto to the 1920s.^[2][4][8] The verb meant to stuff meat with truffles (1868) and later to root about for truffles or nuts (1949).^[2]

Timeline

• 1591 – an edible underground fungus.^[2][3][10]
• 1858 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1868 – verb, to stuff or lard meat with truffles.^[2]
• 1899 – a round chocolate sweet.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1926.^[4]
• 1949 – verb, to hunt or root about for truffles.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The edible underground fruiting body of a fungus of the genus Tuber, valued as a delicacy: black truffles from Périgord.^[14][10][2]
2. (chiefly British) A soft, round chocolate sweet made of chocolate and cream, often dusted with cocoa.^[14][2]

Verb

1. To stuff or flavour meat with truffles.^[2]
2. To root about for truffles or something similar.^[2]

Word family

• truffled
• white truffle

Related words

• tuber
• truff
• trifle
• Tartuffe
• tuberculosis

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins