goober

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The Word of the Day for August 6 is:

goober   \GOO-ber (the "OO" may be pronounced either as 
in "food" or as in "good")\   noun
     : peanut

Example sentence:
     Gerald has been trying to cut down on salty snacks this 
year, but he still can't help stealing a few goobers from the 
candy dish.

Did you know? 
     We're just nuts about the word "goober." It's a regional 
term, used mainly in the southern and east-central part of the 
United States. But the plant didn't originate in the U.S.; it's 
actually native to South America. It was taken from there to 
Africa, where the local people gave new names to the high-
protein legumes. Peanuts traveled back to North America with 
slave traders, and there English speakers adopted a term from 
the Bantu languages of central and southern Africa to 
form "goober." But "goober" isn't the only name for "peanut" 
that has stuck with us. That snack staple is also known as 
the "groundnut," "earthnut," and, more rarely, the "pinder," 
another term that originated in the Bantu languages.