tobacco

• tabacco (obsolete)

Attested since 1588, borrowed from Spanish tabaco. The Spanish word could be from Arabic طُبَّاق (ṭubbāq, “Dittrichia viscosa”) or from a Caribbean language such as Kari'na or Taíno or multiple of them, from a word meaning "roll of tobacco leaves"^[1] or "a pipe for smoking tobacco," such as tabago (“tube for inhaling smoke or powdered intoxicating plants”).^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /təˈbæk.əʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /təˈbæk.oʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækəʊ

tobacco (countable and uncountable, plural tobaccos or tobaccoes)

1. (uncountable) Any plant of the genus Nicotiana.
2. (uncountable) Leaves of Nicotiana tabacum and some other species cultivated and harvested to make cigarettes, cigars, snuff, for smoking in pipes or for chewing.
   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 11:

     Tobacco and the plant valerian are also considered to be anaphrodisiac in their effects, diminishing sexual inclination.

   • 2013 September 7, “Unlucky strike”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 408, number 8852, archived from the original on 4 August 2020:

     Tobacco-settlement bonds are a tribute both to the inventiveness of bankers and the childlike impatience of politicians.

   • 2025 January 22, Nick Stoico, “Newton city council approves generational tobacco ban, joining other Mass. towns”, in Boston Globe‎^[2], archived from the original on 23 January 2025:

     City councilors in Newton have approved a generational ban on tobacco and e-cigarette sales in the city that will prohibit purchases by anyone born after March 1, 2004, joining a growing number of Massachusetts communities that have passed measures to curb tobacco use among young people.

3. (countable) A variety of tobacco.

   Tobaccos from the Connecticut Valley were used for wrapping cigars.

• → Irish: tobaca
• → Scottish Gaelic: tombaca
• → Welsh: tybaco

tobacco (third-person singular simple present tobaccos, present participle tobaccoing, simple past and past participle tobaccoed)

1. (intransitive) To indulge in tobacco; to smoke.
2. (transitive) To treat with tobacco.
   • 1918, Tropical Diseases Bulletin, volume 12, page 412:

     The most satisfactory method of tobaccoing houses is that of stitching the leaves on to a piece of cloth like a strip of matting, which is then laid on the floor. Powdered tobacco should be introduced into rat holes, which can then be firmly closed up with bricks and mortar. Experiments carried out in the City of Hyderabad seem to have been very satisfactory.

• baccy, backy
• chop chop
• smoke

• occabot