buckwheat
(ˈbʌkhwiːt)
Also 6 buk-, bockwheate.
[perh. immediately ad. Du. boekweit (bockweydt in Lyte) or Ger. buchweize ‘beech-wheat’ from the shape of the triquetrous seeds, whence also the botanical name Fagopyrum; but it was referred to as a familiar name by Turner, 30 years before Lyte professed to take it from Dutch, so that the name may have been of Eng. origin, after buck-mast or buck n.2 Barnaby Googe app. independently called it beech-wheat.]
1. a. A species of Polygonum (P. Fagopyrum), a native of Central Asia, whence it was introduced into Europe by the Turks about the 13th c. The seed is in Europe used as food for horses, cattle, and poultry; in N. America its meal is made into ‘buckwheat cakes’, regarded as a dainty for the breakfast-table. Formerly also called brank.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbs (1881) 35 Elatine is lyke wythwynde, but it hath seedes and floures lyke Buckwheate; it may be named in englishe running Buckwheate or bynde corne. 1551 [see 2]. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 31, I had rather call it Beechwheate, bicause the graine therof is threecorned, not unlike the beechmast both in color and forme. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xiv. 468 In base Almaigne Bockweydt, after whiche name it may be englished Bock⁓wheat. 1597 Gerard Herbal i. xlvii. 89 Buckwheat nourisheth less than wheat. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. I. i. xi. 236 Indian Corn and buckwheat are used for feeding poultry. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 456 In part of Normandy and Bretagne, they live very much..upon buck-wheat. 1859 Jephson Brittany ii. 20 Buckwheat is used almost exclusively for feeding pheasants. |
b. attrib.
| 1865 Baring-Gould Werewolves 3 He was down by the hedge of his buckwheat field, and the sun had set. 1873 Atlas of Michigan Pref. 20 Upon a somewhat similar soil is found the ‘Buckwheat’..pine. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss. s.v. Coal, Buckwheat-coal..is the smallest size, and usually included in the dirt or culm. 1882 Garden 25 Mar. 191/3 To go to America for a good..Buckwheat cake. |
c. ellipt. A buckwheat cake. U.S.
| 1830 Collegian 41 (D.A.E.), Six muffins, a dozen buck⁓wheats. 1904 G. H. Lorimer Old Gorgon Graham 227 A fellow'd load up with pie and buck-wheats for breakfast, and go around wondering about his stomach-ache. |
2. Applied to other species of Polygonum, esp. to Black Bindweed (P. Convolvulus) or ‘Running Buckwheat’, and to P. tartaricum ‘Tartarean Buckwheat’.
| 1548 [see 1]. 1551 Turner Herbal 165, I call it runnynge bukwheate, because in thre thynges it resemblethe bukwheate. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 281 Running Buckwheat or Bindweed..putteth forth smal leaues, round and hairy. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 101 The beautiful buck-wheat, whose transparent leaves and stalks are so brightly tinged with vermilion. |