talipot

English

Etymology

From Sinhalese [script needed] (talapata), Malayalam [script needed] (tālipat), from Sanskrit [Term?].

Noun

talipot (plural talipots)

1. A tall palm tree, Corypha umbraculifera, from Sri Lanka and southern India, having very large leaves which were used as a material to write on.

   Synonym: talipot palm

   • 1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC, page 304:

     On Sunday, Oct. 12. being ſtored vvith all things needful for their Journey, viz. Ten Days Proviſion, a Baſin to boil their Provision in, two Calabaſhes to fetch VVater in, and tvvo great Tallipat Leaves for Tents, with Jaggory, Svveet-meats, Tobacco, Betell, Tinder-Boxes, and a Deer-Skin for Shoes, to keep their Feet from Thorns, becauſe to them they chiefly truſted.

   • 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 347:

     The leaves of the talipot or palmyra tree were rolled and boiled and oiled so as to prepare them for use in the writing of a manuscript.