calabash tree
- noun
- /ˈkæl.ə.bæʃ tri/
:
árbol de calabaza
- In the warm sun, we discovered several large gourds hanging from the branches of the calabash tree.
Examples
-
He puts away the file in his back pocket and goes up to the corner of the land where the stunted calabash tree never fulfilled its promise.
Fiction book (1995) -
Manette was standing by a calabash tree, watching.
Fiction book (1999) -
I looked to see if Manette was still by the calabash tree.
Fiction book (1999) -
The villagers gather under the shade of the calabash tree to socialize and share stories.
-
She crafted a beautiful bowl from the gourd of a calabash tree to use as a utensil.
Synonyms
A tropical evergreen tree that makes large round hard fruits used as containers
A tropical plant that grows large hard-shelled gourds
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a tree that produces calabashes' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'calabash' (a gourd-producing plant) with 'tree' (a perennial woody plant). This noun–noun compound follows a common and cross-linguistic pattern of naming plants by their product or type, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Calabash tree gets its name from the large round fruit called the calabash, which people hollowed and dried to make bowls and bottles. That's why the name refers to a tree that produces these useful 'containers'.
