Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Either of two South American palm trees, Attalea funifera or Leopoldinia piassaba, from which a strong coarse fiber is obtained.
- n. The fiber of either of these plants, used for making ropes, brushes, and brooms.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A coarse fiber yielded by two palms, Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia Piassaba. In South America it is made into coarse but durable ropes; in Europe it is used chiefly for street-brooms. The product of the latter species is less valued, and forms but a small percentage of the commercial article. See Attalea, bast-palm, Leopoldinia, Para grass, and cut in next column.
- n. Either of the above palms.
Wiktionary
- n. A fibrous product of two Brazilian palm trees (Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia piassaba), formerly used in making brooms and for other purposes.
- n. Either of these two trees.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A fibrous product of two Brazilian palm trees (Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia Piassaba), -- used in making brooms, and for other purposes. Called also
piaçaba andpiasaba .
Etymologies
- Portuguese piasaba. (Wiktionary)
- Portuguese, from Tupi plaçaba. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Towing by pulling on a piassava rope is hard work for someone whose hands are not callused, and as Getulio will be too busy on shore to stay in the boat and help with the hauling ... somehow, I think your partners will remember this trip.”
“Scarcely taking his eyes off Toni, he attended to securing the piassava rope to its mooring.”
“Hammocks could not be slung in tents as small as hers, so a thin lumpy mattress and a pillow of piassava fiber had been dragged into place - both, Fern-o informed her, the property of Luis Quental himself.”
“The exports also include hides, mangabeira rubber, piassava fibre, diamonds, cabinet woods and rum.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy"
“The tree also produces piassava, another major commodity of the 1850's Atlantic trade, which still has export value today, and could also support the twine and foot mart industries.”
“No country in the world is as rich as Brazil in its natural growth of rubber trees; nor have I ever seen anywhere else such beautiful and plentiful palms: the piassava (_Attalia fumifera_ M.), the assahy (_Euterpe oleracea_ L.), the burity (_Mauritia vinifera_ M.), the carnahuberia (_Copernicia cerifera_ M.), the palmito (_Euterpe edulis_ M.), and many others.”
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