CIGAR  , the

common term for tobacco-leaf prepared for smoking by being rolled into a short cylinder tapering to a point at the end which is placed in the mouth, the other end, which is lighted, being usually cut square (see TonAcco) . The Spanish cigarro is of doubtful origin, possibly connected with cigarra, a cicada, from its resemblance to the body of that insect, or with cigarral, a word of Arabic origin meaning a pleasure garden . The explanation that it comes from a Cuban word for a certain species of tobacco is probably erroneous, since no native word of the kind is known . The diminutive, cigarette, denotes a roll of cut tobacco enclosed usually in thin paper, but sometimes also in tobacco-leaf or the husk of Indian corn .