truffe

borrowed from the Old Occitan trufa, in the literal sense in the 15th century and in the figurative sense of "mockery" a century earlier; this figurative sense being explained by the difficulty of the search for truffles which seem to play tricks on those who gather them. The Occitan is derived from the Vulgar Latin tufera, from tufer "truffle", an Osco-Umbrian form of the Classical Latin tuber. The 17th century botanists also used it with the sense of "potato", also rendered by cartoufle (in the Vivarais, Lyons, Franche-Comté, Burgundy), an adaptation of the Swiss German cartoffel, itself probably adapted from the Italian tartuffoli ("potato", noted by the Basle botanist Gaspard Bauhin in 1596), a derivative of tartufo ("truffle"), derived from the Latin terrae tuber terri tufer. From Italian, transmitted by Switzerland, comes the German tartuffel (1651), cartoffel (1758), kartoffel. On the paths of penetration of the potato, as well as on other appellations, see patate, pomme de terre and tartuffe.