babassu palm
- noun
- Specialized
:
palma babassu
- Oil extracted from the babassu palm is used in cooking and cosmetics.
Examples
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Artisans carve small sculptures from the vegetable ivory found inside babassu palm nuts.
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Many babassu palms grow in Brazil's tropical climate.
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The babassu palm is a crucial source of income for many communities in northern Brazil.
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The babassu palm is found in the Amazon rainforest.
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In the Amazon rainforest, the babassu palm provides valuable nuts that are used for oil production.
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Many communities in northern Brazil rely on the babassu palm for its nutritious nuts and oil.
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The babassu palm is known for its tall stature and importance in the local economy due to its hard-shelled nuts.
Synonyms
A tall palm tree from northern Brazil that has hard nuts used to make oil and a material like ivory
A tall palm from northern Brazil that makes hard nuts used for oil and carved like ivory
A tall palm from northern Brazil with hard nuts that give oil and a material like ivory for carving
A tall palm tree from northern Brazil whose hard nuts produce oil and a white, ivory-like material
A tall palm from northern Brazil with hard nuts that give oil and a material like ivory
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'babassu' names a particular plant and 'palm' classifies it as a palm tree, so their combination straightforwardly denotes that species of palm. This noun+noun naming pattern for species is common and predictable cross-linguistically, so a learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Babassu palm may come from a local Brazilian language that named the tree for its many hard 'nuts'. That helps explain the name today: the babassu palm is a tall tree known for hard-shelled 'nuts' that give oil and a vegetable 'ivory', so the name points to the nut-bearing palm.
