buckwheat · soba, soba noodle, a variety of Japanese noodle made from buckwheat · a kind of low, flat, broad tea bowl, originally produced on the Korean peninsula and favored in tea ceremony, so called for the color of the glaze
köken: Not attested until the middle of the Muromachi period (1336–1573), as a shortening of older 蕎麦 (soba mugi, literally “soba grain”). Two theories exist regarding the ultimate derivation of the soba element: * Samuel Martin reconstructs soba as Proto-Japonic *sonpa and derives it as a compound of *so (unknown) + *pa (“feather”). The *pa changes to *ⁿba as an instance of rendaku (連濁). * From 稜…