mushroom
verb

- to increase very quickly
- to spring up suddenly or multiply rapidly

Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

—
ORIGIN

“Mushroom" is late Middle English - originally denoting any fungus having a fleshy fruiting body: from Old French mousseron, from late Latin mussirio(n).

The word applied at first to almost any of the larger fungi but later to the agaricoid fungi and especially the edible varieties.

The verb meaning “to expand or increase rapidly” is from 1741.

In reference to the shape of clouds that rise upward and outward after explosions, etc., it is attested from 1916, though the actual phrase “mushroom cloud” does not appear until 1955.

—
GIANT MUSHROOM UNDERFOOT

When scientists at the Pacific Northwest Research Station heard about a big tree die-off from root rot in the forest east of Prairie City, Oregon, they made an unexpected discovery.

Popularly known as the honey mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) starting from a single spore had been weaving black shoestring filaments through the forest floor for an estimated 2,400 years,... killing trees as it grew.

“When you’re on the ground, you don’t notice the pattern, you just see dead trees in clusters”, said Tina Dreisbach, a botanist and mycologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

The outline of the giant fungus stretches 3.5 miles across and covers an area as big as 1,665 football fields.

Source: ABC News Report

—
SYNONYMS

balloon out, burgeon, burst forth, grow profusely, increase exponentially/dramatically/manyfold, MUSHROOM, proliferate, snowball, spread like lightning/wildfire

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Smartphone use in developing countries has MUSHROOMED over the past three years.”

—
THANKS to Jacky for suggesting today’s word

—
HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith