Mayan word “Sikar” may have inspired the modern word “Cigar”
In Guatemala, a ceramic pot dating back to the tenth century was found featuring a Mayan man smoking tobacco leaves tied together with a string. The Mayan word for smoking is Sikar which may have inspired the name cigar – According to Wikipedia
We already knew that the native populations of both North and South America had extensive experience with Tobacco as 1,300 year old Mayan humidors were discovered with the word Tobacco written on them. However it was new to us (well, me at least) that the actual word Cigar may have been a Mayan word.
We will have to file this as a minor mystery along with why we call North American Mahogany “Spanish Cedar”.
Any ideas on how we adopted the Mayan term for Cigar?
