white popinac
- noun
- US
:
popinaco blanco
- The garden features several white popinac trees, which attract bees with their fragrant blossoms.
Examples
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The long pods of the white popinac make it easy to identify among the other shrubs.
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Farmers have planted white popinac as a shade tree for their crops in tropical regions.
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The white popinac thrives in tropical climates.
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Many farmers cultivate white popinacs for their pods.
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Farmers have planted white popinac as a shade tree for their crops in tropical regions.
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The garden features several white popinac trees, which attract bees with their fragrant blossoms.
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The long pods of the white popinac make it easy to identify among the other shrubs.
Synonyms
A low scrubby tree from warm countries with white or yellow flowers and long flat seed pods
A small bushy tree with yellow-white flowers and long seed pods that farmers grow for animal fodder
A low bushy tropical tree with feathery leaves and long pods used for animal food and to help the soil
Surface Forms
Morphology
white + popinac
This is a simple adjectival modification: 'white' describes the color of the noun 'popinac', so the meaning ('a popinac that is white' or a white-flowered/white-bodied popinac tree) is directly derivable from the parts. Although 'popinac' is a rare lexical item, the construction color + noun is a highly regular, cross-linguistic compositional pattern, making the MWE transparent to learners who know both constituents.
Etymology
White popinac probably comes from the tree's look: white for its pale, yellow flowers and popinac from an old local name for small trees with long, flat pods. So the name helps you remember the low, scrubby 'tree' with fragrant pale blossoms and long pods that people still call 'white popinac' today.
