A variety of sweet-potato, generally squat and brown, though some varieties are a reddy pink. They are a traditional staple in many parts of Africa. They are supposedly delicious when baked with a hint of brown sugar.

Personally I find them to be disgusting. I chose this handle with the same careful degree of consideration that I chose my other handle, Happyfish, which is to say, it popped unbidden in to my empty, empty mind. Everything is to blame for this too; it wouldn't let me register Happyfish despite there being neither a user nor a node of the same name. I can only assume that there exists a vast conspiracy involving blockstackers, myself, and an enormous vat of yeast. (I'd explain, but surely the inductive reasoning involved is too complex for human comprehension. It certainly evades mine.) I can only hope that in choosing Yam I have in some small way contributed to the demise of this foul plot. Or to its success. Either way would be cool with me.

Yam (?), n. [Pg. inhame, probably from some native name.] Bot.

A large, esculent, farinaceous tuber of various climbing plants of the genus Dioscorea; also, the plants themselves. Mostly natives of warm climates. The plants have netted-veined, petioled leaves, and pods with three broad wings. The commonest species is D. sativa, but several others are cultivated.

Chinese yam, a plant (Dioscorea Batatas) with a long and slender tuber, hardier than most of the other species. -- Wild yam. (a) A common plant (Dioscorea villosa) of the Eastern United States, having a hard and knotty rootstock. (b) An orchidaceous plant (Gastrodia sesamoides) of Australia and Tasmania.

 

© Webster 1913.


Yam, n. (Bot.)

Any one of several cultural varieties of the sweet potato. [U. S.]

 

© Webster 1913

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