RHUBARB

noun Etymology: Middle English rubarbe, from Anglo-French reubarbe, from Medieval Latin reubarbarum, alteration of rha barbarum, literally, barbarian ~ Date: 15th century any of a genus ( Rheum ) of Asian plants of the buckwheat family having large leaves with thick succulent petioles often used as food, the dried rhizome and roots of any of several ~s (as Rheum officinale and R. palmatum ) grown in China and Tibet and used as a purgative and stomachic, a heated dispute or controversy