betel nut
1
8.3
- noun
- Indian
:
nuez de betel
- In Indonesia, the rootlets are chewed with betel nut and the juice swallowed as a remedy for coughs and asthma.
- betel nut chewing
- chewing betel nut
- betel nut and tobacco
Examples
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No associations were observed for alcohol intake or use of betel nut or tobacco.
Academic text (2016) -
Next to him is an old man, his teeth red and rotted from betel nut juice.
Fiction book (1991) -
Betel-nut use was not related to breast cancer risk.
Academic text (2016) -
The betel nuts would turn Alice's teeth red.
Fiction book (2001) -
Heard from my Taiwanese colleagues that the local drivers eat betel nuts to keep them awake during.
Blog text (28) -
The burden of oral cancers has been linked with betel nut and tobacco chewing, for example, in the Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands.
Academic text (2016) -
Specialty foods and consumables included coconuts, Canarium almonds, betel nut, lime, tobacco, and salt.
Academic text (1994) -
In many cultures, people enjoy chewing betel nut for its stimulating effects.
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He visited a local market and bought betel nut, which is popular in Southeast Asia.
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The elderly man sat on the porch, contentedly chewing betel nut while sharing stories of his youth.
Synonyms
A seed from a palm tree chewed with betel leaves and lime in South and Southeast Asia
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'betel nut' is compositionally built from 'betel' (the plant whose leaf is chewed) + 'nut' (a seed), so its basic meaning—the seed associated with the betel plant used for chewing—is directly inferable from the constituents. There is a minor terminological nuance (often referring specifically to the areca seed in regional use), but this does not prevent a B1 learner who knows both words from understanding the general meaning.
Etymology
Betel nut gets its name from the way people chew a hard palm 'seed', the nut, wrapped in a green betel leaf. One popular story says because the leaf and seed were always used together, the name betel nut came to mean the 'seed' people 'chew' as a mild 'stimulant'.