tuber

See also: Tuber

English

Sweet potatoes with visible tubers

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tyo͞oʹbə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈtjuːbə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: to͞oʹbə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈtubɚ/
• Rhymes: -uːbə(ɹ)
• Homophone: (non-rhotic) tuba

Etymology 1

From Latin tūber (“bump, hump, swelling”).

Noun

tuber (plural tubers or (uncommon, possibly obsolete) tubera)

1. A fleshy, thickened underground stem of a plant, usually containing stored starch, for example a potato or arrowroot.
2. (horticulture) A thickened rootstock.
3. (anatomy) A rounded, protuberant structure in a human or animal body.

Derived terms

• fleshtuber
• lignotuber
• microtuber
• minituber
• perituber
• storage tuber
• supertuberation
• tuberal
• tuber cinereum
• tuber fleeceflower
• tuberiferous
• tuberiform
• tuberin
• tuberization
• tuberize
• tuberless
• tuberlike
• tuberoid
• tuberosity
• tuberosphere

Related terms

• tubercle
• tubercular

Translations

fleshy underground stem

• Albanian: zhardhok (sq) m
• Armenian: կոճղեզ (hy) (kočġez), պալար (hy) (palar)
• Belarusian: бу́льба (be) f (búlʹba), клу́бень m (klúbjenʹ), бу́льбіна f (búlʹbina)
• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: duma (bcl)

• Bulgarian: клу́бен m (klúben), грудка f (grudka)
• Burmese: ဥ (my) (u.)
• Catalan: tubercle (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 塊莖 / 块茎 (zh) (kuàijīng), 塊根 / 块根 (zh) (kuàigēn), 球根 (zh) (qiúgēn)

• Czech: bulva (cs) f, hlíza (cs) f
• Danish: knold
• Dutch: knol (nl)
• Estonian: mugul
• Finnish: mukula (fi)
• French: tubercule (fr)
• Georgian: ბოლქვი (bolkvi), გორგლი (gorgli)
• German: Knolle (de) f, Wurzelknolle f
• Hungarian: gumó (hu)
• Ido: tuberkulo (io)
• Indonesian: umbi (id)
• Irish: tiúbar m
• Italian: tubero (it) m
• Japanese: 芋 (ja) (いも, imo)
• Kannada: ಗಡ್ಡೆ (kn) (gaḍḍe)
• Khmer: មើម (km) (məəm)
• Korean: 괴경 (goegyeong)
• Lao: ມັນ (man)
• Macedonian: кртола f (krtola)
• Malay: ubi (ms), tuber (ms)
• Malayalam: കിഴങ്ങ് (ml) (kiḻaṅṅŭ)
• Māori: kōpura, tinaku
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: knoll (no) m

  Nynorsk: knoll m

• Polish: bulwa (pl) f
• Portuguese: tubérculo (pt)
• Russian: клу́бень (ru) m (klúbenʹ)
• Spanish: tubérculo (es), auyama (es) f (edible)
• Swedish: knöl (sv) c, rotknöl c, stamknöl c (botanical, e.g. potato), pålrot (sv) c (botanical, e.g. carrot), rotfrukt (sv) c (common, edible underground parts)
• Tagalog: busnginsuloy, lamang-lupa
• Tamil: கிழங்கு (ta) (kiḻaṅku)
• Telugu: దుంప (te) (dumpa)
• Thai: มัน (th) (man)
• Turkish: yumru (tr)
• Ukrainian: бу́льба (uk) f (búlʹba)
• Vietnamese: củ (vi)
• Welsh: cloronen f

horticulture: thickened rootstock

• Finnish: mukula (fi)

anatomy: rounded, protuberant structure in body

• Bulgarian: буца (bg) f (buca)
• French: protubérance (fr)
• Polish: guz (pl)

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Latin tuba

Latin tubusder.

Middle French tubeder.

English tube

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-os?

Proto-Indo-European *-o-

Proto-Indo-European *-so-

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂so-

Proto-Indo-European *-yós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂s(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-āsijos

Proto-Italic *-āsios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

▲

Latin -ārius

Old French -ierbor.

Middle English -er

English -er

English tuber

From tube + -er.

Noun

tuber (plural tubers)

1. One who tubes.

Anagrams

• Ubert, brute, buret, rebut

French

Etymology

From tube +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ty.be/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Verb

tuber

1. to make into a tube shape
2. to put into a tube

Conjugation

Conjugation of tuber (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tuber
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tubant /ty.bɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tubé /ty.be/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tube /tyb/	tubes /tyb/	tube /tyb/	tubons /ty.bɔ̃/	tubez /ty.be/	tubent /tyb/
	imperfect	tubais /ty.bɛ/	tubais /ty.bɛ/	tubait /ty.bɛ/	tubions /ty.bjɔ̃/	tubiez /ty.bje/	tubaient /ty.bɛ/
	past historic2	tubai /ty.be/	tubas /ty.ba/	tuba /ty.ba/	tubâmes /ty.bam/	tubâtes /ty.bat/	tubèrent /ty.bɛʁ/
	future	tuberai /ty.bʁe/	tuberas /ty.bʁa/	tubera /ty.bʁa/	tuberons /ty.bʁɔ̃/	tuberez /ty.bʁe/	tuberont /ty.bʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tuberais /ty.bʁɛ/	tuberais /ty.bʁɛ/	tuberait /ty.bʁɛ/	tuberions /ty.bə.ʁjɔ̃/	tuberiez /ty.bə.ʁje/	tuberaient /ty.bʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	tube /tyb/	tubes /tyb/	tube /tyb/	tubions /ty.bjɔ̃/	tubiez /ty.bje/	tubent /tyb/
	imperfect2	tubasse /ty.bas/	tubasses /ty.bas/	tubât /ty.ba/	tubassions /ty.ba.sjɔ̃/	tubassiez /ty.ba.sje/	tubassent /ty.bas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tube /tyb/	—	tubons /ty.bɔ̃/	tubez /ty.be/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “tuber”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• brute, buter, rebut

Latin

Etymology 1

Probably from Proto-Italic *tūβos, from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”) (though De Vaan is skeptical of the hypothetical morphology).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtuː.bɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtuː.ber]

Noun

tūber n (genitive tūberis); third declension

1. a hump, bump, swelling, protuberance; excrescence
2. the cyclamen or other similar plants with tuberous roots
3. a truffle (any of various edible fungi, of the genus Tuber)

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	tūber	tūbera
genitive	tūberis	tūberum
dative	tūberī	tūberibus
accusative	tūber	tūbera
ablative	tūbere	tūberibus
vocative	tūber	tūbera

Derived terms

• extūberō
• prōtūberō
• tūberātus
• tūberculum
• tūberōsus

Descendants

• → English: tuber
• → Portuguese: túbera
• → Spanish: tubera
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *tūbellum (diminutive)
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: todiyu, todiellu, todíu
  • Old Spanish: touiello
    • Spanish: tobillo
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *tufera
  • Old Catalan: tòfera
    • Catalan: tòfona
  • Old Occitan: trufa
    • Occitan: trufa
    • → Catalan: trufa
    • → Old French: trufe
      • French: truffe
        • → Greek: τρούφα (troúfa)
        • → Japanese: トリュフ
        • → Romanian: trufă
      • ⇒ Old French: trufle (variant)
        • → Alemannic German: trüffulu, trifflu (Italian Walser)
        • → Danish: trøffel
        • → Dutch: truffel
        • → English: truffle
        • → Faroese: trøfla
        • → German: Trüffel (see there for further descendants)
        • → Norwegian: trøffel
        • → Polish: trufla
        • → Swedish: tryffel
          • → Finnish: tryffeli
    • → Portuguese: trufa
    • → Spanish: trufa
  • ⇒ Vulgar Latin: (Vulgar equivalent to Classical Latin terrae tūber (“tuber of the earth”))
    • Italian: tartufo (see there for further descendants)
      • ⇒ Italian: tartufolo (diminutive) (see there for further descendants)
    • Rhaeto-Romance:
      • Romansh: tartuffel, hardefel, truffel, tiffel, ardöffel

Etymology 2

See tubus.

Alternative forms

• tubur

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtʊ.bɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtuː.ber]

Noun

tuber m or f (genitive tuberis); third declension

1. (usually feminine) a kind of tree or bush of foreign origin, possibly the azarole (Crataegus azarolus)
2. (usually masculine) the fruit of the above tree

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	tuber	tuberēs
genitive	tuberis	tuberum
dative	tuberī	tuberibus
accusative	tuberem	tuberēs
ablative	tubere	tuberibus
vocative	tuber	tuberēs

Further reading

• “tuber”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tuber”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “tuber”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Swedish

Noun

tuber

1. indefinite plural of tub