rhubarb
UK[ˈruːbɑːb]US[ˈruːbɑːrb]
n
A plant with long, thick, reddish stems that are cooked and eaten as a fruit.
n
The cooked stems of this plant, often used in pies and desserts.
n
A heated dispute or noisy argument.
Etymology
The word 'rhubarb' has a long and winding etymological journey that traces back to ancient trade routes. It originates from the Latin 'rha barbarum', meaning "barbarian rhubarb," where 'Rha' was the ancient name for the River Volga, and 'barbarum' indicated its foreign, non-Greek/Roman origin. This Latin term was itself borrowed from the Greek 'rha', a name for the plant possibly derived from the river, and 'barbaros' (foreign). The plant was highly valued in medieval Europe as a medicinal import from the East, and its name was gradually shortened and anglicized through Old French ('reubarbe') into Middle English as 'rubarbe', eventually settling on the modern spelling 'rhubarb'. The theatrical sense of a noisy argument derives from the practice of actors repetitively muttering "rhubarb" to simulate crowd noise.
Analysis
The word is a simplex loanword. Its components are not productively segmentable within modern English spelling.
Examples
She baked a delicious rhubarb and strawberry pie for the summer fair.
The debate in parliament descended into a meaningless rhubarb.
The old gardener taught me how to force rhubarb in the early spring.