mammee
(mæˈmiː)
Forms: 6 mamea, mameia, mamio, 7 mamay(n, mamme, mammet, momin, 8 mamie, mammey, 7–9 mamey, mamee, 9 maumee, mammy, 7– mammee.
[In Sp. mamey, from Haitian; cf. F. mamey, mammée (the latter from mod.L. Mammea, introduced by Linnæus).]
1. A large tree (Mammea americana, family Guttiferæ) of tropical America (now almost naturalized in parts of tropical Africa and Asia), which bears a large fruit with a yellow pulp of pleasant taste. Also, the fruit of this tree.
| 1572 Hawks in Hakluyt's Voy. (1600) III. 464 Fruits of the countrey..as plantans, sapotes,..mamios, limons [etc.]. 1588 N. H. Voy. T. Cavendish in Hakluyt (1589) 811 Plantans, mameias, pineaples, oranges and limons. 1593 J. White in Hakluyt (1600) III. 282 Yong plants of Orenges, Pines, Mameas, and Plantanos, to set at Virginia. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxiv. 278 These Mamayes, Guayauos, and Paltos, be the Indians peaches, apples, and peares. 1666 J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isles 31 [Momin]. 1672 R. Blome Descr. Jamaica 25 Pome-granates, Cocar-Nuts, Limes, Guavars, Mammes, Alumee-Supotas [etc.]. 1684 Bucaniers of America i. ii. 11 Some of the most ordinary [Fruits]..are..Mamayns, Ananaes. 1685 L. Wafer Voy. (1729) 301 The Samballoes are low, flat, sandy islands, covered with a variety of trees; especially with Mammees, Sapadilloes, and Manchineel. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 187 The Mammet is a large, tall, and straight-bodied tree [etc.]. 1760–72 Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. 76 The Mameis are of the same colour as the sapotes. 1764 Grainger Sugar Cane iv. 502 Thee, verdant mammey, first her song shall praise. 1852 Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. I. iv. 153 The Delta..is a fertile plain covered with Mammees, Sapotas (achras),..and other plants. 1866 Mary B. Clarke Mosses fr. Rolling Stone 120 And zapotas, rough and brown, With the mamey and the mango, Cast their luscious sweetness down. |
2. = mammee-sapota.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 715/1 Mammee, Lucuma mammosum. |
3. attrib., as
mammee-stone,
mammee-tree;
mammee-apple (also
mummy apple)
= sense 1;
African mammee-a. (see
quot. 1887);
mammee-sapota, the marmalade tree,
Lucuma mammosa, or its fruit.
| 1683 J. Poyntz Tobago 9 The *Mamme Apple grows to the Magnitude of a Pound Pear... Then there's the Mamme Supporter, much of the same Nature with the former. 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xix. 73 Among many other excellent fruits, I observed one which is here called the Mammee apple. 1829 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 144 They will send a deputation..to give every honest woman a shaddock and a mamee-apple for her little boys. 1863 R. F. Burton Wand. W. Afr. II. 34 Custard-apples, guavas,..maumee-apples. 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 280 African Mammee apple (Ochrocarpus africanus), a tree 40 to 50 feet high. 1905 Daily Graphic 16 Jan. 4/4 The mummy-apple, a delicate tree-melon, springs up spontaneously wherever land is cleared. 1911 J. London Adventure vii. 85 Mummy apples, which he had regarded as weeds, under her guidance appeared as appetizing breakfast fruit. 1683 *Mamme Supporter [see mammee apple]. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 203 The Mammee-Sappota Tree is different from the Mammee described at the Island of Tobago. a 1726 H. Barham Hortus Amer. Index (1794), Mammee-sapota, Achras sapota. 1864 Grisebach Flora W. Ind. 785 Mammee-Sapota, Lucuma mammosa. |
| 1681 Grew Musæum ii. 190 A Great *Mammee-stone..A little Mammee-stone..A round Mammee-stone. |
| 1672 W. Hughes Amer. Physit. 57 Of the *Momin-Tree, or Toddie-Tree. 1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 620 The Mammee-Tree of the West-Indies. 1725 Sloane Jamaica II. 123 The Mammee-tree..is above sixty Foot high [etc.]. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 56 The delicious fruit of the mamey trees. |