Spice Islands en · PROPN
Etymology
Refers to the importance of the islands for the supply of certain important spices. Clove trees are native to the Maluku Islands, and for some centuries a monopoly of supply existed, until plants were smuggled out and cultivated in Zanzibar.
Meanings
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(plural, plural-only) The Moluccas or Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia comprising the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.
Blue leagues beckoned him, the Humboldt Current helped him north along the western Patagonian shore, fair trade winds sped him westerly when he set his course for the Spice Islands.
1976, Ernest Stanley Dodge, Islands and Empires: Western Impact on the Pacific and East Asia, page 3:There followed a remarkable period of maritime expansion by the Portuguese, who by the end of the century would establish a sea route to the Indies, rounding Africa and crossing the Indian Ocean to reach the subcontinent itself and the Spice Islands that lay beyond.
1992, Edwin Williamson, The Penguin history of Latin America, London; New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 5:Halmahera is the largest of the Spice Islands. In contexts involving foreign exploitation of spices, the term Spice Islands sometimes refers only to the five tiny clove-growing islands that lie off the western coast of Halmahera.
2010, Charles Edward Miller Pearce, Frances M. Pearce, Oceanic Migration, page 4:The Portuguese established trading ports at Goa, India, and Sri Lanka and moved farther east to Malacca, Malaysia, and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) bringing back pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and mace.
2006, Susheela Raghavan, Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings, 2nd edition, page 8:
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(plural, plural-only) The Zanzibar Archipelago, in the Zanzibar semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.
2008, Andrew Young, Memoirs of a World Traveler, Volume 1: Journeys of a Lifetime, page 170, I decided to prolong my stay in the Spice Islands until the upcoming Zanzibar Cultural Festival and International Film Festival, before heading back to Nairobi.
Translations (2)
pl Moluki (Moluccas) · de Gewürzinseln (Moluccas)