‖ carambola
[a. Pg. (and mod.Lat.) carambola. Several Portuguese writers of the 16th c. state that this was the native name in Malabar: Molesworth has Mahrattī karanbal; Forbes Watson has a Hindī name karmal, Singhalese and Hindī kāma-ranga, Skr. karma-ranga. (Marsden has Malay karambil coco-nut.) Linnæus took the Pg. name into botanical Latin.]
The acid fruit (golden-yellow, ellipsoid, obscurely 10-ribbed) of a small East Indian tree Averrhoa Carambola, (family Oxalidaceæ); also the tree itself.
| 1598 tr. Linschoten's Voy. 96 note, The fruite which the Malabars and Portingales call Carambolas, is in Decan called Camarix, in Canar Camarix and Carabeli. 1887 Standard 16 Sept. 5/3 The carambola and the Otaheite apple. |