wild bean
- noun
- US
:
tubérculo silvestre
- The wild bean was highly valued by many Native American tribes as a source of nutrition.
Examples
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For days, they survived on roasted wild beans and roots gathered from the prairie.
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Many tribes relied on wild beans for sustenance.
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Today, botanists study the wild bean for its potential to improve modern crops.
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The wild bean is rich in nutrients.
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For days, they survived on roasted wild beans and roots gathered from the prairie.
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The wild bean was highly valued by many Native American tribes as a source of nutrition.
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Many tribes relied on wild beans for sustenance.
Synonyms
1
7.7
A North American plant with an edible underground root eaten by Native Americans
A North American climbing plant with purple flowers and edible roots
A climbing plant from North America with edible underground roots that Native Americans used as food
A North American plant with underground tubers that people eat
A plant that grows every year in dry parts of southwestern US and Mexico and has small tubers like potatoes
A North American plant with edible roots eaten by native people
A North American plant with edible roots that Indigenous people use for food and medicine
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense can be straightforwardly inferred from 'wild' (growing naturally) + 'bean' (an edible plant/seed): a B1 learner would expect an edible plant/seed that grows in the wild. Although the botanical entry describes a nutlike tuber rather than a true legume, the general idea of an edible wild plant is compositionally clear and predictable from the constituents.
Etymology
Wild bean is the nutlike, edible tuber of that plant. Native Americans roasted and ate these tubers like beans or nuts, so people called the root the wild bean, and the name still means that edible tuber.