truffle
Any one of several kinds of roundish, subterranean fungi, usually of a blackish colour. The french truffle (tuber melanosporum) and the english truffle (T. Aestivum) are much esteemed as articles of food.
(Science: zoology) Truffle worm, the larva of a fly of the genus Leiodes, injurious to truffles.
Origin: OF. Trufle, F. Truffe; akin to Sp. Trufa, tartufo; of uncertain origin; perhaps from L. Tuber a tumour, knob, truffle. Cf. Tuber, Trifle.
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