▪ I. ‖ tuber1 Obs.
Pl. tuberes.
[L. tuber masc. (the fruit), fem. (the tree).]
A kind of apple, or the tree on which it grows.
| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 393 Now tuberis in quyncis me may graffe. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. iii. ii. 65 b, Zizypha and Tuberes two kyndes of apple trees. 1658 tr. Porta's Nat. Magic iv. vii. 124 Medlars, and the fruit Tuber may be shut up in pitchers, so to be preserved. |
▪ II. tuber2
(ˈtjuːbə(r))
[a. L. tūber neut., a hump, swelling, pl. tūbera.]
1. Bot. An underground structure consisting of a solid thickened portion or outgrowth of a stem or rhizome, of a more or less rounded form, and bearing ‘eyes’ or buds from which new plants may arise; a familiar example is the potato. Also applied to other underground structures resembling this but of different origin, as in tuberous roots.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 90 Tuberous roots; consisting of one single tuber, or of several. 1704 [see b]. 1822 J. Flint Lett. Amer. 57 The potato crops are better.., the plants are more vigorous, and the tubers much larger. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 352 Orchis. Tubers globose ovoid or palmate. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. iii. §3 (ed. 6) 59 A Tuber may be..characterized as a short thickened rhizoma on a slender base, or a rootstock some portion of which..is thickened by the deposition of nourishing matter. |
‖ b. (With capital initial.) A genus of underground discomycetous fungi, comprising the truffles.
| [1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 824 The Tubera Terræ..observ'd lately at Rushton in Northamptonshire..are indeed the true French Truffles, the Italian Tartuffi. 1699 Evelyn Acetaria 42 Trufles, Pig-Nuts, and other subterraneous Tubera.] 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Tuber, properly, is a subterraneous Mushroom, or a Truffle; but by Botanick Writers, is often used to signifie the round turgid Roots of some Plants: which they call Tuberose, or Knobby Roots. |
2. A rounded swelling or protuberant part in the animal body. a. Path. A morbid swelling or enlargement, as of a gland, etc.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tuber,..a Swelling or Bunch in a Man's Body. 1834 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 233 Those who are constitutionally predisposed to a production of tubers and tubercles. 1888 Fagge & Pye-Smith Princ. Med. (ed. 2) I. 96 In a solid organ it [i.e. a tumour] may form a rounded mass, which is called a nodule or tuber. |
b. Anat. A rounded projecting part or structure; a tuberosity.
Chiefly as Latin, with pl. tubera: often with defining word, as the specific name of such a structure: e.g. tuber cinereum, a conical projection at the base of the brain; tuber cochleæ or tuber tympani, the promontory of the tympanum.
| 1741 Monro Anat. (ed. 3) 209 The Tuber is afterwards added in the Manner that other Epiphyses are. 1857 Dunglison Med. Lex., Tuber cinereum, a grayish tubercle, seen at the base of the brain behind the commissure of the optic nerves. 1866 Huxley Preh. Rem. Caithn. 110 Norwegians are remarkable for the length of their skulls, and the very general development of an occipital tuber, or probole. |
3. gen. A rounded projection, protuberance. rare.
| 1888 Doughty Arabia Deserta I. 32 We..came where in a torrent bed are laid bare certain great tubers of the lime rock underlying. |