poke salad

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See also: poké salad

English

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Etymology 1

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poke (pokeweed) + salad or sallet. Some speakers distinguish between the raw “salad” and the cooked “sallet”. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

A pokeweed plant, Phytolacca americana

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • enPR: pōk săʹləd IPA(key): /ˌpoʊk ˈsæləd/
  • (Appalachia, traditional or obsolete) IPA(key): /ˌpoʊk ˈsælɪt/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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poke salad (countable and uncountable, plural poke salads)

  1. A food made from boiled pokeweed leaves, which are poisonous unless cooked properly.
    • 1921, T. S. Stribling, Birthright[1]:
      The Harvard man went back into the kitchen and sat down at a rickety table covered with a red-checked oil-cloth. On it were spread the spoiled ham, a dish of poke salad, a corn pone, and a pot of weak coffee.
    • 2013, Carole J. Skelly, Dictionary of Herbs, Spices, Seasonings, and Natural Flavorings[2], Routledge, →ISBN:
      Whereas to most people, “salad” is made with raw greens, “poke salad” shoots and greens must be cooked, the cooking water changed and discarded several times. [] There are many documented deaths from eating improperly prepared “poke salad.”
    • 2019 October 3, Abby Carney, “How Did This Poisonous Plant Become One of the American South’s Most Long-Standing Staples?”, in Saveur[3], retrieved 6 June 2023:
      Despite the fact that the kudzu-like Phytolacca americana sprouts up all across North America, poke sallet, a dish made from the plant’s slightly-less-toxic leaves, is a regional thing, popular only to Appalachia and the American South.
  2. (chiefly Southern US, Appalachia) Pokeweed, the leafy plant used to make such a dish.
    • 1968, Tony Joe White (lyrics and music), “Polk Salad Annie”, in Black and White:
      If some of ya'll never been down south too much / I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this / So that you'll understand what I'm talking about / Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods, and the fields / And it looks something like a turnip green / Everybody calls it polk salad
    Synonyms: poke, pokeweed, pocan (see more at pokeweed)

Etymology 2

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poke salad/bowl

poke (cubed raw fish) + salad

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  • enPR: pō'kā săʹləd IPA(key): /ˌpoʊ.keɪ ˈsæləd/

Noun

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poke salad (countable and uncountable, plural poke salads)

  1. A food made from diced raw fish, seasoning, diced fruit and vegetables, and sometimes rice.
    Synonym: poke bowl
    • 2017, Fodor's Southern California: with Los Angeles, San Diego, the Central Coast & the Best Road Trips[4], Fodor's Travel, →ISBN:
      [] a wide range of creative seafood dishes (the Hawaiian-style poke salad with ahi tuna is a local favorite).

Further reading

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Hypernyms

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