Etymograph

English

truff

Truff comes from French truffe ‘truffle’, and goes back to Latin tuber.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtuber1
  2. Old Occitanc. 950–1500trufa1
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presenttruffe2‘truffle’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1749truff2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, French truffe
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English truff
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1749, Thomas Nugent, The Grand Tour: “The town is famous for its earth-nuts or truffs,…”.

Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtuberWiktionary, French truffe
  2. Old Occitanc. 950–1500trufaWiktionary, French truffe
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presenttruffeWiktionary, English truff‘truffle’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1749truffWiktionary, English truff. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1749, Thomas Nugent, The Grand Tour: “The town is famous for its earth-nuts or truffs,…”

Linked words

through Latin tuber

tuberculosis, tuber, 7 more

Today it means

noun A truffle.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “truff”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for French truffe. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin tuber / truff