rutabaga

[roo-tuh-bey-guh, roo-tuh-bey-]

noun

a brassicaceous plant, Brassica napobrassica, having a yellow- or white-fleshed, edible tuber.
the edible tuber, a variety of turnip.

Origin of rutabaga

1790–1800, Americanism; < Swedish (dial.) rotabagge

Also called Swedish turnip.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for rutabaga

Contemporary Examples of rutabaga

Goodbye greens, goodbye peaches, and hello white: potatoes, parsnips, rutabaga.
What to Eat
Cookstr.com
September 15, 2009

Historical Examples of rutabaga

He still calls the beet a beet-root and the rutabaga a mangel-wurzel.
The American Language
Henry L. Mencken
The Rutabaga is a productive variety, and possesses a good deal of nutriment.
Soil Culture
J. H. Walden
The Swedish, or Rutabaga, variety is rather more nutritive than the white, but its stronger flavor renders it less palatable.
Science in the Kitchen.
Mrs. E. E. Kellogg
We may get bitten by a snapping bean or routed by a rutabaga or infected by a parsnip.
Mince PieAuthor: Christopher Darlington MorleyRelease Date: October 10, 2004 [eBook #13694]
Christopher Darlington Morley
Early purple-top strap-leaf turnip, early cabbage, lettuce, rutabaga turnips.
The Red Cross in Peace and War
Clara Barton

British Dictionary definitions for rutabaga

rutabaga

noun

US and Canadian a Eurasian plant, Brassica napus (or B. napobrassica), cultivated for its bulbous edible root, which is used as a vegetable and as cattle fodder: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)
the root of this plant

Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): swede

Word Origin for rutabaga

C18: from Swedish dialect rotabagge, literally: root bag

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for rutabaga

1799, from Swedish dialectal (West Götland) rotabagge, from rot "root" (see root (n.)) + bagge "bag" (see bag (n.)). Slang meaning "dollar" is from 1940s.