souari
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Kari'na sawari, via Caribbean French saouari. Attested in English (as souwarrow or saoari) from the 19th century.
Noun
editsouari (plural not attested)
- Any tree of the genus Caryocar. They yield strong timber and some bear edible nuts.
- 1816, George Pinckard, Notes on the West Indies[1], page 189:
- Among a variety of specimens, we collected some fine plants of the Tonquin bean, the Souwarrow nut, the wild orange, and a species of medlar.
- 1896, Andrew Samuel Fuller, The Nut Culturalist[2], page 280:
- Souari nut, or butternut.—This nut, like the last, is a native of British Guiana, and is the fruit of the Caryocar nuciferum, a noble tree, growing a hundred feet high, having large, broad, trifoliate leaves, resembling those of our common horse-chestnut, but not quite as broad.
References
edit- saouari, n. in Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.