BARBASCO

barbasco, joewood, Jacquinia keyensis

(noun) West Indian shrub or small tree having leathery saponaceous leaves and extremely hard wood

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

barbasco (countable and uncountable, plural barbascos)

A plant (Lonchocarpus urucu, now Deguelia rufescens var. urucu) native to parts of northern South America used as a poison for fishing and an insecticide.

An evergreen (Jacquinia barbasco, now Jacquinia arborea)

One of several inedible wild Mexican yams (Dioscorea mexicana and Dioscorea composita) from which progesterone can be synthesized.

Source: Wiktionary



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Word of the Day

27 June 2025

SQUARE

(adjective) having four equal sides and four right angles or forming a right angle; “a square peg in a round hole”; “a square corner”


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Coffee Trivia

The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.

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