Tabebuia

See also: tabebuia

Translingual

Etymology

Coined by Swiss botanist Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle in 1838,[1] based on the work of Bernardino António Gomes.[2]

Later authors would go on and make an etymology for the term, deriving it from Old Tupi *tacyba (ant) + *bebuya (wood), because hollowed-out tabebuias are often inhabited by ants,[3][4] but Gomes himself only stated it was a common name for the plant in Rio de Janeiro.[2] Also, although both terms exist in Old Tupi, tasyba refers specifically to fire ants and bebuî actually means “light-weight” — wood is ybyrá.

Proper noun

Tabebuia f

  1. (sensu lato) A taxonomic genus within the family Bignoniaceae – trees including certain trumpet trees, ipe, pau d’arco, and lapacho.
  2. (sensu stricto) A taxonomic genus within the family Bignoniaceae – excluding species now in Handroanthus and Roseodendron.

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

References

  1. ^ Tabebuia protologue at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
  2. 2.0 2.1 Gomes, Bernardino Antonio (1803), Observações botanico-medicas sobre algumas plantas do Brazil (in Portuguese and Latin), volume II, Lisbon: Typografia da Academia Real das Sciencias, page 7
  3. ^ Tabebuia”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  4. ^ Gentry, Alwyn H. (1969), Tabebuia (Bignoniaceae) in Central America, Madison: University of Wisconsin–Madison, page 30:Nevertheless, Gomes did introduce the word "tabebuia" a contraction of "tacyba bebuya" meaning "ant wood" in the Tupi Indian dialect ...