cigar

cigar
cigarless, adj.cigarlike, adj.
/si gahr"/, n.
1. a more or less cylindrical roll of tobacco cured for smoking, of any of various lengths, thicknesses, degrees of straightness, etc., usually wrapped in a tobacco leaf.
2. no cigar, Informal. not being a winning or successful effort, as if not good enough to earn a cigar as a prize: He made a good try at fielding the ball, but no cigar.
[1625-35; < Sp cigarro]

* * *

Cylindrical roll of tobacco for smoking, consisting of cut tobacco filler formed in a binder leaf and with a wrapper leaf rolled spirally around the bunch.

Wrapper leaf, the most expensive leaf used in cigars, must be strong, elastic, silky in texture, and even in colour; it must have a pleasant flavour and good burning properties. Cigars are bigger than cigarettes, and the odour and smoke they produce are stronger. Cigars were being smoked by Maya Indians by the 10th century; they were reported back to Spain by Christopher Columbus and other explorers and became popular there long before they spread to other European countries.

* * *

      cylindrical roll of tobacco for smoking, consisting of cut tobacco filler formed in a binder leaf and with a wrapper leaf rolled spirally around the bunch. Wrapper leaf, the most expensive leaf used in cigars, must be strong, elastic, silky in texture, and even in colour; it must have a pleasant flavour and good burning properties.

      Columbus and the explorers who followed him in Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and Brazil found that the Indians of those regions smoked a long, thick bundle of twisted tobacco leaves wrapped in a dried palm leaf or corn (maize) husk. A pottery vessel discovered at Uaxactún, Guatemala, dating from the 10th century AD or earlier, shows the figure of a Maya smoking a string-tied roll of tobacco leaves. The Spanish word cigarro, from which “cigar” is derived, probably was an adaptation of sik'ar, the Mayan term for smoking. By 1600 the cigar had been introduced into Spain, where it was a symbol of conspicuous wealth for two centuries before it was widely used in other European countries. The use of cigars in New England probably followed closely the settlement of Connecticut in 1633.

      Modern cigars are described by their size and shape as follows: corona is a straight-shaped cigar with rounded top (the end placed in the mouth), about 5 1/2 inches (14 centimetres) long; petit corona, or corona chica, is about 5 in. long; tres petit corona is about 4 1/2 in. long; half a corona is about 3 3/4 in. long; Lonsdale is the same shape as a corona, about 6 1/2 in. long; ideales is a slender, torpedo-shaped cigar, tapered at the lighting end, about 6 1/2 in. long; bouquet is a smaller, torpedo-shaped cigar; Londres is a straight cigar about 4 3/4 in. long. These descriptive terms appear after the brand name. A panatela is a thin cigar open at both ends, usually about 5 in. long with a straight shape but sometimes having a shoulder, or drawn-in portion, at the mouth end; originally it had a finished top that had to be cut off before smoking. A cheroot is a thin cigar, open at both ends, usually thicker and stubbier than a panatela, and sometimes slightly tapered. The name whiff, used in Britain, refers to a small cigar open at both ends, about 3 1/2 in. long.

      The main colour classifications of cigars are claro (CCC), light; colorado-claro (CC), medium; colorado (C), dark; colorado-maduro (CM), very dark; and maduro (M), exceptionally dark. The last two are seldom seen in the United Kingdom or the United States. The colour of the wrapper is no indication of the strength of a cigar, but considerable care is given to the matching of colours. Good-quality cigars may be sorted into as many as 20 different shades to ensure that all cigars in a box have a uniform appearance.

      Cigars should be kept in a fairly dry and warm, not hot, atmosphere at constant conditions. The temperature should be 64° to 67° F (18° to 19° C), with a relative humidity of about 53 to 57 percent.

      In modern packaging, a band is placed on the cigar or printed on the protective covering, usually cellophane. The covering, applied by machine, preserves the natural humidostatic condition of the cigar. Selectors and packers, working under suitable lighting, arrange the cigars according to colour and perfection of wrapper and place them in boxes made of wood, metal, paper, or glass.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cigar — en mai 2006 au Kentucky Horse Park. Père : Palace Music Mère : Solar View …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Cigar — Ci*gar (s[i^]*g[aum]r ), n. [Sp. cigarro, orig., a kind of tobacco in the island of Cuba: cf. F. cigare.] A small roll of tobacco, used for smoking. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • cigar — (n.) 1730, from Sp. cigarro, probably from Maya sicar to smoke rolled tobacco leaves, from si c tobacco; or from or influenced by Sp. cigarra grasshopper (on resemblance of shape) …   Etymology dictionary

  • cigar — ► NOUN ▪ a cylinder of tobacco rolled in tobacco leaves for smoking. ORIGIN French cigare, probably from a Mayan word meaning smoking …   English terms dictionary

  • cigar — [si gär′] n. [Sp cigarro, prob. < Maya sicar, to smoke rolled tobacco leaves < sīć, tobacco] a cylindrical roll of cured tobacco for smoking, consisting of cut tobacco wrapped in a tobacco leaf …   English World dictionary

  • Cigar — For other uses, see Cigar (disambiguation). From the Spanish cigarro cigar , which was perhaps derived from the Spanish cigarra cicada (OED) …   Wikipedia

  • cigar — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ fat ▪ expensive ▪ cheap ▪ lit, unlit ▪ Cuban … O …   Collocations dictionary

  • Cigar — A small roll of tobacco leaf for smoking. The word cigar, from the Spanish cigarro, first appeared in English in 1730. In 1998, a National Cancer Institute report outlined cause and effect connections between cigar smoking and disease, including… …   Medical dictionary

  • cigar — n. 1) to light (up); puff on; smoke a cigar 2) a Havana cigar * * * puff on smoke a cigar a Havana cigar to light (up) …   Combinatory dictionary

  • čígar — zaim. neskl. (ȋ) izraža lastnino posamezne moške osebe, na katero se nanaša: kmet, čigar hiša je zgorela; sosed, na čigar pomoč se zanaša // neustalj. izraža pripadnost stvarnemu ali pojmovnemu imenu moškega ali srednjega spola; katerega:… …   Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”