Cigar - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CIGAR, the common term for tobacco-leaf prepared for smoking by being rolled into a short cylinder tapering to a point at the end which is placed in the mouth, the other end, which is lighted, being usually cut square (see TosAcco). The Spanish cigarro is of doubtful origin, possibly connected with cigarra, a cicada, from its resemblance to the body of that insect, or with cigarral, a word of Arabic origin meaning a pleasure garden. The explanation that it comes from a Cuban word for a certain species of tobacco is probably erroneous, since no native word of the kind is known. The diminutive, cigarette, denotes a roll of cut tobacco enclosed usually in thin paper, but sometimes also in tobacco-leaf or the husk of Indian corn.