Editing Yucca (section)

===Names===
In 1737 Linnaeus, in setting out his rules for the names of genera, wrote, "Generic names which have not a root derived from Greek or Latin are to be rejected".{{sfn|Stearn|1995|p=275}} However, in the case of ''Yucca'' and several other names, he violated his own rule by adopting names derived from other languages.{{sfn|Stearn|1995|p=289}} The word was borrowed from the [[Carib language]] by Spanish as ''juca'', starting with [[Amerigo Vespucci]] in 1497 referring to [[cassava]].{{sfn|OED 2025}} It was first used to refer to the unrelated plants of the genus ''Yucca'' in a German travel account published in 1557.{{sfn|Thiede|2020|p=363}} This was used as the genus name by Linnaeus in ''Species Plantarum''.{{sfn|Hess & Robbins 2020a}}{{sfn|POWO 2025b}}

The name ''yucca'' is used as an English [[common name]] for plant species in the genus. It is pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˌ|ˈ|j|ə|k|ə|ˌ}} (YUCK-uh) in both [[British English]] and [[American English]], but may also be pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˌ|ˈ|j|uː|k|ə|ˌ}} (YOO-kuh) in British English.{{sfn|OED 2025}} It is also known as ''Adam's needle'' or as ''Spanish-bayonet''.{{sfn|OED 2025}}{{sfn|Hess & Robbins 2020a}} Other common names for some species include ''Spanish dagger'', ''shin dagger'', ''soapweed'', or ''soaptree''.{{sfn|OED 2025}}{{sfn|Heil et al. 2013|p=98}} In the plant trade they are sometimes known as ''palm lilies''.{{sfn|Thiede|2020|p=370}} The name yucca can be confused with cassava, though the spelling ''yuca'' is often used to distinguish the food from plants in ''Yucca''.{{sfn|OED 2025}}

The Aztecs living in Mexico call the local yucca species {{Lang|Nah|iczotl}} in [[Nahuatl]], which gave the Spanish {{Lang|es|izote}}.{{sfn|RAE|ASALE|2024}}