swine-bread

Noun

swine-bread (countable and uncountable, plural swine-breads)

1. Any plant of the genus Cyclamen.
   • 'Tis not ſo hard a Task to know the delicious Earth-Apples or Swine-bread, that are ſo cheap in this Country;1696, Jean Dumont (Baron de Carlscroon), A New Voyage to the Levant: Containing an Account of the moſt Remarkable Curioſities in Germany, France, Italy, Malta and Turkey, page 68
   • The fondness of swine for the roots originated the English as well as some of the continental names of the plant. Swine-bread is an old name for it; and the French call it Pain de Porceau, or, as it is provincially termed, Pain de pur.1855, Anne Pratt, The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great Britain, Volume 3, page 41

   Synonyms:

   hog's bread, groundbread, sowbread

2. (obsolete, rustic) A plant of species Conopodium majus or its tuber.

   Synonyms:

   kippernut, arnut, jarnut, hawknut, earth chestnut, groundnut, earthnut, pignut, hognut, Saint Anthony's nut

3. (obsolete, rustic) A truffle, Tuber fungus.
   • The truffle is most frequently met with in the southern counties of England, in the chalky soil of the South Downs, and an experienced truffle-hunter who came from the West Indies about the year 1790, after investigating the whole coast from the Land's End to the mouth of the Thames, pitched upon...1877, W. Collett-Sandars, “Truffles”, in Gentleman's Magazine, volume CCXLI, Picadilly: Chatto & Windus, page 732