pagoda tree en · NOUN
Etymology
(source of wealth): See pagoda (“a kind of gold coin”).
Meanings
- Styphnolobium japonicum, a tree in the pea family Fabaceae.
-
(India, colloquial, dated, idiomatic) The opportunity to make money rapidly in British India.
India has been transferred from the regions of romance to the realms of fact […] the mines of Golconda no longer pay the cost of working, and the pagoda-tree has been stripped of all its golden fruit.
1877, Blackwood's Magazine, page 575:It might be mistaken […] for the work of some modern architect, built for the Nabob of a couple of generations back, who had enriched himself when the pagoda-tree was worth the shaking.
1881 September 3, Saturday Review, page 307:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| pagoda trees | Number=Plur | lexicographic |