oca

American  

[oh-kuh] / ˈoʊ kə /

Or oka

noun

1. a wood sorrel, Oxalis tuberosa, of the Andes, cultivated in South America for its edible tubers.

2. a tuber of this plant.

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oca British  

/ ˈəʊkə /

noun

1. any of various South American herbaceous plants of the genus Oxalis, cultivated for their edible tubers: family Oxalidaceae

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Etymology

Origin of oca

1595–1605; < Spanish < Quechua oqa

Example Sentences

Each house, or oca, is named for its “owner” and architect—in this case, a man named Kwakway.

From Scientific American • Apr. 19, 2022

The oca is cultivated in the fields of Mexico, but only succeeds in the warmer districts.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by Simmonds, P. L.

Ocol haa, syncopated to ocola, and even oca, was the usual term for Christian baptism.

From The Maya Chronicles Brinton's Library Of Aboriginal American Literature, Number 1 by Brinton, Daniel Garrison

Of this verb we have only xa, and there is another substantive verb gui, which itself takes oca in its conjugation.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison

They saw here a vegetable of the potato kind called oca.

From Oregon and Eldorado or, Romance of the Rivers by Bulfinch, Thomas