tuckahoe

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The edible root of a plant of species Peltandra virginica, used by Native Americans of colonial-era Virginia.

   “In June, July, and August, they feed upon the rootes of Tockwough berries, fish, and greene wheat.”

   “The ponderous beast had spent the summer eating tuckahoe roots, the autumn eating acorns and nuts, and was now as heavy as two stout men.”

2. (US, Virginia, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncommon, uncountable)A person, especially if poor and malnourished (or if implied to be), living east of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

   “[…] at least until you either get poor Tuckahoe out of his present hobble, in furnishing so many strong suspicions against the sincerity of his former professions of patriotism, […]”

   “The poor Tuckahoe, however, when he purchased land in Washington County, or the Shenandoah, or in Rowan, seems to have left behind him, not only his worn-out fields and his tumbledown house, but his wasteful methods.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The sclerotium of wood-decay fungi of species Wolfiporia extensa, used by Native Americans and the Chinese as food and as a herbal medicine.
4. (countable, uncountable)The flowering plant Orontium aquaticum.
5. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of tuckahoe (“person living east of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains”).