yaupon

English

Alternative forms

• yapan
• yopon, youpon, yupon (less common)
• yawpan, yaupan (largely obsolete)

Etymology

From a Catawba word, most likely yap, yop, yą (“tree”), with the second element being either a diminutive suffix or pą (“leaf”) (resulting in the compound yąpą); alternatively, perhaps directly from a longer form of the word for leaf, 'yap'hâ.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈjoʊˌpɑn/, /ˈjuˌpɑn/, /ˈjɔˌpɑn/

Noun

yaupon (countable and uncountable, plural yaupons)

1. The yaupon holly, Ilex vomitoria, an evergreen holly shrub with white flowers and red or yellow berries, found in the south-eastern United States.
   • 2002, Connie C. Barlow, The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms:

     Yaupon is evergreen like the American holly and the familiar hollies of Christmas decorations, but the leaves of yaupon are small and smooth-edged rather than prickly. Easy to chew and blandly tasty, they would not stand out in a tossed salad.

2. A tea-like drink, "black drink", brewed from the leaves of this holly (or, sometimes, Ilex cassine).

See also

• cassina
• black drink

Anagrams

• Pouyan