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Glite Dictionary
malacca cane

malacca cane

9.9
A walking stick made from the strong stem of a rattan palm
  • noun
  • /məˈlɑːkə keɪn/
  • Archaic
translation icon : bastón de malaca
  • Her posture is military, and she carries a man's Malacca cane, one of her legs being shorter than the other, a condition which gives her walk a penguin-like lilt.
  • carrying a malacca cane

Examples

  • Still, he walked stiffly erect, seldom using the malacca cane he carried.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • There is a uniform for unfashion in Murray Hill: elderly women in black silk dresses and equally elderly men sporting pencil-thin mustaches and Malacca canes, their clothes visibly decades old.

    Academic text (1990)

  • He uses a malacca cane to assist his walk after his accident.

  • The elderly gentleman confidently strolled through the park, leaning on his malacca cane.

  • As she entered the room, her malacca cane clicked softly against the wooden floor.

Synonyms

cane
vsmalacca cane
80 1.0

A long stick that helps a person walk

focuses on specific palm stem material and origin rather than general support use
walking stick
vsmalacca cane
9 1.8

A stick used to support a person while walking

specifies the material and Southeast Asian origin rather than any support stick
rattan cane
vsmalacca cane
1 5.2

A long thin flexible stem from a climbing palm used to make furniture or baskets

refers to the finished walking support made from that stem often from Southeast Asia
malacca
vsmalacca cane
  • Archaic
9.9

A walking stick made from the stem of a rattan palm

has identical meaning but is the two-word form rather than the short form

Surface Forms

malacca cane singular
malacca canes plural

Morphology

malacca + cane

The meaning 'a cane made from Malacca (rattan) stem' is directly derivable from combining 'malacca' (a type/style/material of cane) with 'cane' (a walking stick). This is a straightforward noun+noun compositional pattern where the first element specifies material/origin, a pattern that is cross-linguistically common and therefore transparent to learners who know both constituents.

Etymology

The noun malacca cane comes from the port of Malacca and the word cane. Traders there sold strong, shiny walking sticks made from the long stem of a palm plant, and that's why today malacca cane means 'a walking stick made from that plant'.