A rare, strongly flavored fungus that grows underground near tree roots and is used as a luxury food; also, a small chocolate sweet shaped like this fungus.
From French *truffe*, from Old Provençal *trufa*, from Latin *tuber* “lump, swelling.” The chocolate sense comes from the sweet’s rounded, lumpy shape.
Real truffles grow hidden underground and often need trained dogs or pigs to sniff them out, which is part of why they’re so expensive. Chocolate truffles are an edible joke: fancy sweets named after fancy fungi.
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