wampee
UK /wɒmˈpiː/ · US /wɑmˈpiː/ noun
Forms wampees wampi whampee
- noun A tree, Clausena lansium, native to Southern China and Indochina.
- noun The fruit of this tree.
- noun Pontederia species, especially Pontederia cordata.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Cantonese 黃皮 /黄皮 (wong⁴ pei⁴⁻², “wampee”, literally “yellow skin”).
Perhaps from a Native American language of the Carolinas such as Carolina Algonquian. If the name was originally applied to a white variety, it could be from the Algqonian root for "white": compare Massachusett wompi (“white”), whence English wamp and wampum.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “wampee”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details