massaranduba

See also: Massaranduba

English

WOTD – 21 February 2017

A bulletwood or massaranduba tree (Manilkara bidentata) being hand-milled in Guyana

Etymology

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese maçaranduba, from Tupian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmæsəɹænˈduːbə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mas‧sa‧ran‧du‧ba

Noun

massaranduba (plural massarandubas)

1. A tropical hardwood tree, Manilkara bidentata.
   • 1882, “A vegetable cow”, in The Iowa Normal Monthly; A Magazine Devoted to Education, volume 6, Dubuque, Iowa: Iowa Normal Monthly Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 422:

     The famous polo de vaca, or "cow-tree" of South America, called massaranduba by the natives, belongs to the natural order of the Atrocarpads, which, by what might appear a curious coincidence, includes also the celebrated bread-fruit.

   • 1867, [Thomas] Mayne Reid, Afloat in the Forest, or, A Voyage among the Tree-tops, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, OCLC 9379166; republished New York, N.Y.: T. R. Knox, 1884, OCLC 24617541, page 157:

     The massaranduba is not the only species known as palo de vaca, or cow-tree. There are many others so called, whose sap is of a milky nature.

   • 2005, Arthur O[lney] Friel, “The Tailed Men”, in Amazon Nights: Classic Adventure Tales from the Pulps, [Holicong, Pa.]: Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 97:

     Then the huge reddish trunks of massarandubas began to slide past us, their lofty crowns matting together so thickly that they seemed to make a solid roof.

Synonyms

• ausubo, balatá, bulletwood, cow-tree

Further reading

• massaranduba on Wikipedia.Wikipedia