A plant whose dried leaves are smoked in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, or used in chewing tobacco.
From Spanish 'tabaco,' which may come from Taíno (Caribbean language) 'tobaco' (a tube for smoking), or from Arabic 'tabbaq' (a plant). Introduced to Europe by Columbus in the 1490s.
Tobacco shows how indigenous American words spread globally—the Taíno people of the Caribbean had a word for the smoking tube, and that single word transformed worldwide culture and economy forever.
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