bastard lignum vitae
- noun
- US
:
guayacán
- The bastard lignum vitae is prized for its extremely dense and durable wood.
Examples
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It can be difficult to distinguish true lignum vitae from bastard lignum vitae by appearance alone.
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Early settlers in the Caribbean used bastard lignum vitae for crafting tool handles and bearings.
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The bastard lignum vitae tree is often found in tropical regions.
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You can identify the bastard lignum vitae by its dark green leaves.
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Early settlers in the Caribbean used bastard lignum vitae for crafting tool handles and bearings.
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The bastard lignum vitae is prized for its extremely dense and durable wood.
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You can identify the bastard lignum vitae by its dark green leaves.
Synonyms
A small evergreen tree from the southern United States and West Indies with very hard wood used for durable tools
A small evergreen tree from the Caribbean and nearby Americas with very hard wood and a resin used as medicine
A tropical tree with very hard wood used for tools and ship parts
A small evergreen tree from the Caribbean with very hard wood and a sticky sap used as medicine
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a lexicalized botanical name containing the Latin collocation 'lignum vitae' and a specialist use of 'bastard' that a B1 learner would not reliably interpret; 'vitae' is not transparent and the full referent (a specific small evergreen tree native to certain regions) is a fixed lexical item. Although 'lignum' suggests wood and 'bastard' can mean 'false/lesser', the overall meaning is specialized and not predictably derivable from the parts for an average B1 learner.
Etymology
The noun bastard lignum vitae likely comes from early settlers who found a small evergreen that looked like the true lignum vitae but was a different type of tree. They used bastard to mean 'false' or 'not the real one', so the name points to a similar, very hard wood that is not the original lignum vitae.
