embira
English edit
Etymology edit
From a Tupian word embira (“bark, bast”).
Noun edit
embira (uncountable)
- Any of several related Brazilian trees of the genus Xylopia, or the bast fiber they yield.
- 1811, Robert Southey, “View of the State of Brasil in 1581”, in The Scots Magazine, page 280:
- No hemp grew in the country, the wild palm afforded one substitute; and the bark of the embira supplied cordage and [...]
- '1946, Handbook of South American Indians:
- page 459: [...] two right-angled notches prevented the caraguatá or embira string from slipping.
page 535: The embira or caraguatá strings, were made taut or lax by twisting.
- 1948, Julian Haynes Steward, Bulletin, issue 143, part 3:
- page 259: Alfred R. Wallace (1853) says that they were made of three strips of embira, [...]
page 287: Boys 8 to 12, who do not yet use the penis sheath, wear under their buriti belts two fringed embira aprons, one over the other.
- 1997, Paul Oliver, Encyclopedia of the Vernacular Architecture of the World: Cultures and habitats:
- The floor beams are 10 cm x 15 cm (4 in x 6 in) in diameter and are tied with embira (bast fibre). When the structure of sticks has been set up the mixture of earth and manure is spread on it by hand.