yuccan.

Brit.

/ˈjʌkə/, U.S.

/ˈjəkə/

/ˈjuːkə/

Forms: 1500s–1600s iucca, 1500s–1800s yuca, 1600s–1700s jucca, 1600s– yucca.

Etymology: In sense 1, found in the forms juca (Amerigo Vespucci, 1497), yuca (Clusius, 1567); of Carib origin.

1. The common name in Western South America and Central America for the cassava n. (Now usually in form yuca, for distinction from sense 2.)

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the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > vegetables > root vegetable > [noun] > cassava

manioca1544

cassava1555

yucca1555

cassadaa1643

the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > root vegetables > cassava or cassava plant

manioca1544

cassava1555

yucca1555

Indian bread1597

cassadaa1643

datil1882

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. i. f. 3 They haue also an other kynde of rootes, whiche they call Iucca, wherof they make breade in lyke maner.

1597 J. Gerard Herball iii. 1359 Of Yuca or Iucca... The roote wherof the bread Casaua, or Cazaua is made.

1631 S. Jerome Arraignem. Whole Creature ix. 67 Figs and Lemmans from Spaine, Jucca from Cuba, Mayze from Peru.

1726 J. Stevens tr. A. de Herrera Tordesillas Gen. Hist. Amer. IV. 135 A Roll of Yuca, being a clammy Root, like a Patata.

1851 M. Reid Scalp Hunters I. xx. 255 There were ‘lairs’ among the underwood..thatched with the palmated leaves of the yuca.

1894 C. D. Tyler in Georg. Jrnl. III. 481 The masato..is..the masticated and fermented root of the yuca.

2. Any plant of the liliaceous genus Yucca, native of the warmer parts of North America, and extensively cultivated for ornament, characterized by a woody stem with a crown of usually rigid narrow pointed leaves and an upright cluster of white bell-shaped flowers; popularly known as Adam's needle, particular species being also called Spanish bayonet and Spanish dagger. (Almost always in form yucca.)

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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > cultivated or ornamental trees and shrubs > [noun] > yuccas

yucca1664

Adam's Needle1730

bear grass1750

Spanish Bayonet1823

yucca-tree1828

Spanish dagger1859

dagger-plant1866

dasylirion1880

sotol1881

soap-weed1884

1664 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense 83 in Sylva [Plants] not perishing but in excessive Colds..the smaller Indian Fig, Jucca, Seseli Æthiop.

1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. (at cited word) The Narrow-leav'd Carolina Yucca.

1841 Mantell in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 131 140 The..trunks of the Clathrariæ,..Yuccæ, and arborescent ferns.

1851 M. Reid Rifle Rangers (1853) i. 18 The thickets of yucca and acacia-trees.

1872 C. King Mountaineering in Sierra Nevada i. 20 Tall stems of yucca bore up their magnificent bunches of bluish flowers.

Compounds

C1. General attributive.

yucca-bread n.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Yucca-Bread, or Cassada-Bread.

yucca-flower n.

yucca-plant n.

yucca-root n.

a1892 Ld. Tennyson Anacaona iv, in H. Tennyson Alfred Ld. Tennyson: Mem. (1897) I. 57 She gave them the yuccaroot..Of sweet Xaraguay.

C2.

yucca-borer n. (a) a North American moth, Megathymus yuccæ, whose larva bores into the roots of yucca-plants; (b) a Californian weevil, Yuccaborus frontalis.

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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Megathymidae > megathymus yuccae (yucca borer)

yucca-borer1895

1895 J. H. Comstock & A. B. Comstock Man. Study Insects 367 A much better known species is the Yucca-borer, Megathymus yuccæ.

yucca-moth n. a tineid moth of the genus Pronuba, esp. P. yuccasella, which lays its eggs in the ovary of the yucca-plant, and deposits a ball of pollen on the stigma, thus fertilizing the seeds on which the larvæ feed.

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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Tineidae > member of genus Pronuba or Tegeticula (yucca-moth)

pronuba1872

yucca-moth1892

1892 Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. 99 The Yucca moth and Yucca Pollination.

yucca-palm n. any arborescent species of Yucca.

1851 M. Reid Scalp Hunters I. xviii. 226 She was standing near one of the yuca palm trees that grew up from the azotea.

yucca-tree n. = yucca-palm n.

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