fan palm
- noun
- /fæn pɑlm/
- Specialized
:
palmera abanico
- The Chinese fan palm is often used in landscaping due to its unique, segmented leaves.
- Chinese fan palm
Examples
-
He pulled out the half-pint and drained the last of the whiskey, putting the bottle down carefully behind a fan palm.
Fiction book (1998) -
Barn owls, especially common in desert neighborhoods where planted fan palms offer the nesting sites they seem to love best, are regular visitors to Echo Park palm trees as well, and to the rest of California besides.
Blog text (6) -
In sunny gardens, the fan palm provides a tropical ambiance with its large, flat fronds.
-
Many homeowners choose to plant a fan palm because it adds a striking visual element to their outdoor space.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a palm tree with fan-shaped leaves' is directly and literally composed from 'fan' (fan-shaped) + 'palm' (a type of tree). This transparent, referential compound follows straightforward English noun-compounding patterns and is likely comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The compound noun fan palm comes from the plant's large leaves that spread out from one point like a hand-held fan, so people called the tree a fan palm. That's why a fan palm means a palm tree with 'fan-shaped' leaves.
