Dictionary

massaranduba en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌmæ.sə.ɹænˈdu.bə/ (General-American)
• /ˌmæ.sə.ɹænˈduː.bə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Old Tupi *masarana? Proto-Tupian *kˀɨp Proto-Tupi-Guarani *ʔɨβ Old Tupi 'yba Old Tupi masarandybabor. Brazilian Portuguese massarandubabor. English massaranduba Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese massaranduba, from Old Tupi masarandyba.

Meanings

1. A tropical hardwood tree, Manilkara bidentata, native to South America which produces edible fruit.
   • 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. 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 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. 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
   • 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. 2005, Arthur O[lney] Friel, “The Tailed Men”, in Amazon Nights: Classic Adventure Tales from the Pulps, [Holicong, Pa.]: Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 97:

Forms

Synonyms

cow-tree · balata · bulletwood · ausubo · bully tree