Camachile

/ˌkæməˈtʃiːl/ noun

Definition

A tropical American tree or pod-bearing shrub, sometimes used for food or timber.

Etymology

From Spanish, possibly from a Nahuatl or indigenous Mesoamerican language. The -ile ending is common in Spanish names for New World plants discovered and named by colonizers.

Kelly Says

Many tropical tree names we use today are Spanish phonetic spellings of indigenous Aztec or Mayan words that colonizers heard and wrote down—camachile is one of hundreds of 'lost translations' from the 1500s.

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