myrobalan

English

Alternative forms

• mirabolan, mirobalan, myrobalun, myrabolam, myrobolan, myrobolane [17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle French mirabolan, and its source, Latin myrobalanum (“ben nut”), from Hellenistic Ancient Greek μυροβάλανος (murobálanos), from μύρον (múron) + βάλανος (bálanos, “acorn; date”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mʌɪˈɹɒbələn/

Noun

myrobalan (plural myrobalans)

1. A plum-like fruit from various trees of the genus Terminalia, formerly used in medicine and now in the dyeing industry; also, the tree itself.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection ii:

     turbith, agaric, myrobolanes, hermodactyls, from the East Indies, tobacco from the West […].

Derived terms

• myrobalan plum (Prunus cerasifera)
• emblic myrobalan (Phyllanthus emblica)
• bastard myrobalan, beleric myrobalan (Terminalia bellirica)
• chebulic myrobalan, yellow myrobalan (Terminalia chebula)
• Arjun myrobalan (Terminalia arjuna)
• belleric myrobalan

Translations

fruit from a tree of the genus Terminalia

• Greek:

  Ancient: μυροβάλανος m (murobálanos)

• Persian: هلیله‎ (fa) (halile)
• Spanish: mirobálano m