Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several small, mostly tropical palms having fan-shaped leaves, especially one of the genus Sabal, such as S. palmetto of the southeast United States. Also called sabal.
- n. Leaf strips of any of these plants, used in weaving.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any one of several fan-leafed palms of different genera. The one most properly so called is Sabal Palmetto, the cabbage-palmetto, a tree from 20 to 35 feet high, abounding on the southeast coast of the United States. It forms part of the device in the seal and flag of South Carolina, the Palmetto State. Its wood is not attacked by the teredo and is very durable under water, and is therefore much used for piles and wharves. The fibrous leaves of this and the dwarf palmetto, S. Adansoni, are made into hats, baskets, and fans, and also furnish an upholstering material. The palmetto, or hemp-palm, of southern Europe and North Africa, is Chamærops humilis, a dwarf species, affording abundant fiber, consumed chiefly as “vegetable horsehair.” The same names are given to the Chinese Trachycarpus excelsa, whose leafstalks on decaying leave a fibrous matter of textile use.
- n. Same as silk-top palmetto.
Wiktionary
- n. botany Two closely related genera of New World palms, of the family Arecaceae; (a) Serenoa repens or the saw palmetto is the only species of its genus; it has certain medicinal uses; (b) Sabul, represented by about 15 species, some known commonly as palmettos, others as fan palms.
- n. A native or resident of the American state of South Carolina (female: Palmetta).
- adj. Of or pertaining to a palmetto palm.
- adj. Of or pertaining the the US state of South Carolina, as the Palmetto State.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A name given to palms of several genera and species growing in the West Indies and the Southern United States. In the United States, the name is applied especially to the Chamærops Palmetto, or Sabal Palmetto, the cabbage tree of Florida and the Carolinas. See Cabbage tree, under cabbage.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several low-growing palms with fan-shaped leaves
Etymologies
- Spanish palmito, diminutive of palma, palm tree, from Latin; see palm2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For those of you who don't know a palmetto is a tree (beautiful in my opinion) that most southereners think of as a weed.”
“It's what they call palmetto cabbage, and it's very good to eat too, I can tell you. ”
“Now, not some little inch longer sucker but the kind they call palmetto bugs down south – the big three to four inch longs fuckers.”
“It was very low, with merlons of great thickness; and was constructed of earth, and a species of soft wood common in that country, called the palmetto, which, on being struck with a ball, does not splinter, but closes upon it.”
“McCown said the bears den in thick palmetto, which is very flammable.”
“In the centre, Christ is seen, enthroned under a kind of palmetto canopy; above him, on”
“The palmetto spoken of is, in truth, not a "palmetto," though a plant of kindred genus.”
“Coffin's Island,' which is usually of the highest grade.] [Footnote D: The palmetto is a straight, tall tree, with a tuft of branches and palm leaves at its top.”
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy
“palmetto" land, marking the limits of the annual inundation, extended northward through the woods, and parallel to the line of fence.”
“He tried to make his way back to the trail, then to where he thought the parking lot was, and to traffic he heard on a nearby four-lane highway, using palmetto trees and white-flowered shrubs as markers.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘palmetto’.
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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dandy's list
favourite words
cattywampus, wibble, fenagle, whisker, sneeze, wisteria, honeysuckle, clove, perihelion, glimmer, twilight, dusk and 264 more...
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srboisvert's Words
couverture, poffertjes, naif, endermatic, prepense, aspic, otalgia, curettage,, florid, piffling, pillock, mow and 164 more...
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Stately Plants
The flowers and trees of states and nations.
camellia, forget-me-not, saguaro cactus, apple blossom, Calafornia poppy, Rocky Mountain, mountain laurel, peach blossom, American beauty rose, orange blossom, Cherokee rose, pua aloalo and 210 more...
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Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
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I like : P
palladium, pallida mors, pantheon, parabola, parapraxis, pasqueflower, pawpaw, pear, pentacle, pentagram, penumbra, perhaps and 37 more...
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Darqueau's list
banausic, nugatory, psychogeography, peripatetic, dérive, flâneur, banausos, brash, anarchy, dada, neo-plastic, potawatomi and 81 more...
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ogham
birch, rowan, alder, willow, ash, hawthorn, oak, holly, hazel, apple, blackthorn, elder and 79 more...
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