tous-les-mois en · NOUN
Etymology
From French tous les mois (“all the months, i.e. every month”), since the tubers of the plant are edible throughout the year.
Meanings
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(historical, uncountable) A kind of starch with large, oval, flattened grains, often sold as arrowroot or used for adulterating cocoa, made from the rootstocks of a species of Canna, probably Canna edulis.
The East India arrowroot was considered the best; and the French West India arrowroot not so good. The East India arrowroot had the finest grains; the second finest were those from the potato; and third the tous les mois or French West India arrowroot; […]
1845, Edwin Lankester, “Lecture II. Starch—Potato—Arrow-root—Tapioca—Protein—Wheat—Maize—Rice.”, in Report of Lectures on the Natural History of Plants Yielding Food; […], London: John Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 16: