Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TO-BAC'CO, n. [perhaps from Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, in Spanish America, where it was first found by the Spaniards. But this account of its origin is very doubtful. Las Casas says that in the first voyage of Columbus the Spaniards saw in Cuba many persons smoking dry herbs or leaves rolled up in tubes called tabacos. Charlevoix, in his History of St. Dominique, says that the instrument used in smoking was called tabaco.]

A plant, a native of America, of the genus Nicotiana, much used for smoking and chewing and in snuff. As a medicine, it is narcotic, emetic and cathartic; and it possesses two additional powers at least, if not more. Tobacco has a strong disagreeable smell, and an acrid taste. When first used it sometimes occasions vomiting, &c. but the practic of using it in any form, soon conquers distaste, and forms a relish for it that is strong and almost unconquerable.