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poke salad

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poke salad¹

  • /ˌpoʊk ˈsæləd/
  • /ˌpoʊk ˈsælɪt/ Appalachia, obsolete, traditional

Where it comes from

poke (“pokeweed”) + salad or sallet. “Poke salad” and “poke sallet” mean the same thing—carefully boiled pokeweed. Uncooked pokeweed is poisonous. Given that “salad” connotes “raw,” many speakers favor the original “sallet” which connotes “cooked greens.”

noun poke salads · poke salet · poke sallet · poke salat · polk salad

  1. countable, uncountable A food made from boiled pokeweed leaves, which are poisonous unless cooked properly. The Harvard man went back into the kitchen and sat down at a rickety table covered with a red-checked oil-cloth. On it were spread the spoiled ham, a dish of poke salad, a corn pone, and a pot of weak coffee.
  2. Appalachia, Southern US, countable, uncountable Pokeweed, the leafy plant used to make such a dish. If some of ya'll never been down south too much / I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this / So that you'll understand what I'm talking about / Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods, and the fields / And it looks something like a turnip green / Everybody calls it polk salad

    Similar: poke, pokeweed, pocan

poke salad²

  • /ˌpoʊ.keɪ ˈsæləd/

Where it comes from

poke (“cubed raw fish”) + salad

noun poke salads · poké salad

  1. countable, uncountable A Hawaiian food made from diced raw fish, seasoning, diced fruit and vegetables, and sometimes rice. […] a wide range of creative seafood dishes (the Hawaiian-style poke salad with ahi tuna is a local favorite).

    Similar: poke bowl

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Cite this
MLA

"poke salad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/poke%20salad. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

poke salad. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/poke%20salad

Chicago

"poke salad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/poke%20salad.

BibTeX
@misc{poke_salad_2026,
  title = {poke salad},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/poke%20salad},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}