Truffle

How to spell truffle

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce truffle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does truffle mean?

1. nounA rare, strongly flavoured underground fungus prized in cooking, often found near tree roots.
2. nounA soft, rich ball of chocolate, usually coated in cocoa powder or chopped nuts.

Truffle in a sentence

• The chef shaved a fresh truffle over the pasta at the table.

• She rolled each chocolate truffle in cocoa powder before boxing them.

• Trained pigs and dogs are used to sniff out each buried truffle in the forest.

• The dessert menu listed a dark truffle filled with salted caramel.

Where does truffle come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the early 1600s from the French truffe, which came in turn from an Old Provencal word trufa meaning a lump or knob. Most scholars trace it further back to the Latin tuber, which literally meant a swelling, hump, or knob in the ground, an apt description for the lumpy fungus that grows hidden among tree roots. The same Latin tuber also gives us 'tuber' for a potato-like root and 'protuberance' for a bulge, so the family is all about things that swell and bulge out. The doubled f and the soft -le ending reflect the French shape of the word rather than the Latin original, which is exactly the spot where writers hesitate. The chocolate confection borrowed the name in the late 1800s because its rough, dusted ball was thought to resemble the knobby black fungus.

How the word is built

• truff- (from French truffe, ultimately Latin tuber: lump, swelling)
• -le