areca nut
- noun
- /ˈɑːrɪkə nʌt/
- Indian
:
nuez de areca
- People often chew areca nut with betel leaves for a stimulating effect.
Examples
-
Canarium almonds, wasek nuts, pigs, lime, areca nuts, fish nets, small baskets, love magic, dances, canoes.
Academic text (1994) -
In many cultures, areca nut is commonly mixed with lime and betel leaf before being chewed.
-
His mother, P. Dingirimenike, sits close by, talking and cutting areca nuts, which people chew like tobacco.
Blog text (31) -
The bov is given a buah pinang (roasted, hard areca nut about an inch in diameter) to bite on and stop his teeth from chattering.
Academic text (1991) -
He wraps for me a bit of areca nut with a paste of wet lime in a leaf of the betel pepper and bids me chew it.
Blog text (22) -
She offered me a small piece of areca nut wrapped in a betel leaf to try.
Synonyms
1
8.3
A seed chewed with betel leaves and lime to make you feel more awake, often in South and Southeast Asia
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is transparently the nut (seed) of the areca palm: combining 'areca' (a type of palm) with 'nut' (a seed) yields the intended meaning. This follows a common noun+noun compounding pattern (like 'coconut' or 'walnut') that a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily interpret.
Etymology
Areca nut comes from local names in South and Southeast Asia for the small seed of the betel palm, the hard nut people wrap in betel leaf with lime to chew. Because it has long been chewed as a mild 'stimulant' and in social ceremonies, the name now simply means that seed used for chewing.