a plant whose roots can be cooked and eaten or made into a type of flour, used especially to make sauces thick; the flour itself 竹芋(根状茎可食用或用于烹饪,使调味汁变稠);竹芋粉 Word Originlate 17th cent.: alteration of Arawak aru-aru (literally ‘meal of meals’) by association with arrow and the noun root, the tubers being used to absorb poison from arrow wounds.