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barbasco

 - 2 dictionary results

bar⋅bas⋅co

  [bahr-bas-koh, -bah-skoh]
Use barbasco in a Sentence
–noun, plural -cos.
1. a shrub or small tree, Jacquinia barbasco, of tropical America, the source of a substance used to stun fish so they can be caught easily.
2. any similar plant yielding a substance that stuns or kills fish.
3. the fish-stunning or fish-killing substance obtained from these plants.
Origin:
1855–60; < AmerSp, said to be alter. of verbasco mullein < L verbascum
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To barbasco
bar·bas·co   (bär-bäs'kō)   
n.   pl. bar·bas·cos

  1. Any of several tropical American plants, as in the genus Lonchocarpus, that contain a substance that can stun or paralyze fish.

  2. Any of several Mexican plants of the genus Dioscorea having a large, inedible root that yields an extract used as a raw material for synthetic steroid hormones.


[American Spanish, from Spanish barbasco, mullein, alteration (possibly influenced by barba, beard) of verbasco, from Latin verbascum.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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