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Glite Dictionary
wild tobacco

wild tobacco

7.5
A wild plant from South America and Mexico with leaves used for smoking and not usually grown for sale
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : tabaco silvestre
  • Researchers studied wild tobacco to learn more about its growth patterns in natural habitats.

Examples

  • Farmers in South America often distinguish wild tobacco from the cultivated varieties they grow.

  • The indigenous people used wild tobacco in their rituals for its unique properties.

  • Maybe some GOP activists found some wild tobacco growing up in the mountains, brought it back, and smoked it with their friends in a strategy meeting, and they all ended up convinced Romney would carry Oregon.

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Synonyms

Nicotiana rustica
vswild tobacco
  • Specialized
9.9

A tobacco plant from South America and Mexico that has a lot of nicotine

is a native species not mainly defined by very high nicotine
Indian tobacco
vswild tobacco
7.9

A plant from South America and Mexico used for medicine

is a native species described by botanical identity not by medicinal use

Surface Forms

wild tobacco singular
wild tobaccos plural

Morphology

wild + tobacco

The meaning is a straightforward adjectival modification: 'wild' (growing naturally/untamed) + 'tobacco' (the plant) yields a tobacco plant that grows wild rather than cultivated. This compositional pattern is common across languages and follows normal noun phrase semantics, so a B1 learner who knows both words will reliably understand the phrase.

Etymology

Wild tobacco comes from a simple image: tobacco plants growing by themselves in nature. The word wild means 'not farmed', so wild tobacco refers to the natural plants people find in the countryside rather than the tobacco grown on farms.