areca
/əˈriːkə/ noun
Forms arecas
- noun Any member of the genus Areca of about fifty species of single-stemmed palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests.
Etymology
Via Portuguese from Malayalam അടയ്ക്ക (aṭaykka), itself from Proto-Dravidian *aṭ-ay-kkāy (“areca nut”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A genus of palms, one species of which produces the areca nut, or betel nut, which is chewed in India with the leaf of the Piper Betle and lime.
Etymology [Canarese adiki: cf. Pg. & Sp. areca.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “areca”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details