tuber

tuber¹ swollen underground stem

Etymology

The word for the plant part is borrowed from Latin tūber (“lump, swelling, hump; truffle”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The plural of the Latin noun, through Vulgar Latin *tūfera, is also the source of truffle.^[7][8] Most English dictionaries take the Latin word from the root seen in tumeō (“to swell”), Proto-Indo-European *teuə- (“to swell”),^{[3][8][9][10]} and compare Ancient Greek τύφη (túphē), Old Norse þúfa (“mound”) and Old English þūf (“tuft”).^[4][9] De Vaan is more cautious: the word might reflect Proto-Indo-European *teuH- (“to swell”), but the ending is hard to explain, the Germanic and Greek forms do not make an Indo-European impression, and there is no good etymology.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An underground growth of a stem, in botany: 1668, in Bishop Wilkins's Essay Towards a Real Character.^[2][4][5] Etymonline and Dictionary.com have the 1660s.^[8][12] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins dates the word much earlier, to the late 16th century.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word ran from a lump or tumour to a truffle,^[4][7] and English took over part of this range.^[2] After the botanical sense, the capitalised Tuber was taken as the name of the truffle genus by 1704.^[2] A tuber in the body was a morbid swelling in 1706 and an anatomical projection in 1741,^[2][8] chiefly in Latin phrases such as tuber cinereum.^[6] A general sense of a rounded lump, recorded in Doughty in 1888, is rare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1668 – a thickened underground part of a plant.^[2][4][5]
• 1704 – Tuber, a genus of fungi, the truffles.^[2]
• 1706 – a morbid swelling in the body.^[2][8]
• 1741 – a rounded anatomical projection.^[2]
• 1888 – any rounded projection (rare).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short, thick, fleshy underground stem that stores food and bears buds from which new plants grow, as in the potato.^{[4][14][3][2]}
2. A similar thick root or other plant part, as in the dahlia.^[4][14][3]
3. (anatomy) A rounded swelling or projecting part; a tuberosity.^{[14][3][2][12]}

Word family

• tuberless
• tuberoid
• tuberosity
• tuberous

tuber² maker or fitter of tubes

Etymology

The word for one who works with tubes is formed from English tube + -er.^[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that makes or works with tubes: Dictionary.com dates it to 1920–25.^[12]

Semantic evolution

It is a trade word, applied to workers who fit boiler tubes and to machines and their operators that form rubber or plastic into a strip or tube; in textiles it is also a worker who rewinds cloth from large rolls into small ones to inspect it.^[4]

Timeline

• 1920–25 – a maker or fitter of tubes.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A worker who installs or fits tubes, as in a boiler.^[4]
2. A machine or operator that forms material such as rubber or plastic into a strip or tube.^[4]
3. A textile worker who rewinds cloth into smaller rolls while checking it for flaws.^[4]