calabash
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
Etymology: From French calebasse, from Spanish calabaza (“gourd; pumpkin”), possibly from Arabic قَرْعَةٌ يَابِسَةٌ (qarʕatun yābisatun, “dry gourd”) or directly from its etymon Persian خربزه (xarboze, “melon”), possibly ultimately from Sanskrit त्रपुस (trapusa, “colocynth fruit”) (compare Persian تربزه (tarboze, “watermelon”)). The English word is cognate with Catalan carabassa (“pumpkin; orange colour”), Galician cabaza (“gourd, pumpkin, squash; calabash (container)”), Occitan calebasso, carabasso, carbasso, Portuguese cabaça (“gourd; calabash (container)”), Sicilian caravazza (and caramazza).
Inflected forms:
form: calabashes
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: A tree (known as the calabash tree; Crescentia cujete) native to Central and South America, the West Indies, and southern Florida, bearing large, round fruit used to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this tree.
pos: noun
examples: As we were absolutely destitute of large vessels, to contain and mix liquids, we poured, by means of a tutuma (fruit of crescentia cujete, calabash), the water of the river into one of the holes of the rock. To this we added sugar, and the juice of acid fruits. In a few minutes we had an excellent beverage, which was almost a refinement of luxury in that wild spot; […]
There was a teacher who taught children to read under a calabash tree, and this teacher's name was Goso.
gloss: The bottle gourd (calabash vine, Lagenaria siceraria), believed to have originated in Africa, which is grown for its fruit that are used as a vegetable and to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this plant.
pos: noun
examples: The calabash, is a kind of gourd, and belongs to that family of twining plants which were called among the Hebrews, "wild vines," but by the botanists of modern times, the cucurbitaceæ, or cucurbitaceous plants. […] That playful variety of form and magnitude, so remarkable in the calabash, renders it fit for all kinds of uses. Sometimes we have a globular base, terminating in a long neck, and then it answers the purpose of a bottle, and the American fastens it to his girdle, or the pommel of his saddle, when about to pass through regions which abound not in water.
CALABASH GOURD (LAGENARIA SICERARIA) […] Appropriately bowing to AHP, the American Herbal Products Association, for the betterment of the herbal industry, I will now use its standardized common name, Calabash Gourd, a vine, not to be confused with the Calabash tree (Crescentia).
Asian gourds grow like cucumbers […] and feature strong flavors that are often used in Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian soups and stews. Some types to try in your garden include the bitter gourd and calabash gourd.
gloss: A container made from the mature, dried shell of the fruit of one of the above plants; also, a similarly shaped container made from some other material.
pos: noun
examples: On Sunday, Oct. 12. being ſtored vvith all things needful for their Journey, viz. Ten Days Proviſion, a Baſin to boil their Provision in, two Calabaſhes to fetch VVater in, and tvvo great Tallipat Leaves for Tents, with Jaggory, Svveet-meats, Tobacco, Betell, Tinder-Boxes, and a Deer-Skin for Shoes, to keep their Feet from Thorns, becauſe to them they chiefly truſted.
[T]he manner of separating the gold from the sand, is very simple, and is frequently performed by the women in the middle of the town; for when the searchers return from the valleys in the evening, they commonly bring with them each a calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the females as remain at home.
[page 65] The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held. […] [page 105] [I]t seemed to me that he was dogging us, but with what intent I could not for the life of me imagine. This circumstance, coupled with his ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing, shrouded sort of talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments and half-apprehensions, and all connected with the Pequod; and Captain Ahab; and the leg he had lost; and the Cape Horn fit; and the silver calabash; […]
Saje put the calabash in the king's hands. There was a hush from the crowd. The calabash was large and painted with beautiful designs. Few people had seen it up close.
[...] we would pour water from the tank over ourselves with a calabash and finish by splashing on the Agua Florida from Lanman & Kemps […]
[T]he motorcycle drivers say that new helmets are too expensive and instead have been found wearing pumpkin-like calabashes – dried fruit shells usually used to carry water – cooking pots tied with string or strips of rubber from old tyres.
gloss: A calabash and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
pos: noun
examples: Amuta and the twelve-year-old have produced calabashes of palm wine and are busy pouring out healthy drams into the cupped hands of black and white alike.
It was dusk by the time Yandi reappeared, carrying a calabash of parboiled rice and a peanut and chili sauce on his head.
gloss: A musical instrument, most commonly a drum or rattle, made from a calabash fruit.
pos: noun
examples: The inſtrument moſt in requeſt uſed by the Abundi, being the people of the kingdom of Angola, Matamba, and others, is the Marimba; it conſiſts of ſixteen calabaſhes orderly placed along the middle between two ſide-boards joined together, or a long frame, hanging about a man's neck with a thong. Over the mouths of the calabaſhes there are thin ſounding ſlips of red wood called Tanilla, a little above a ſpan long, which being beaten with two little ſticks, returns a ſound from the calabaſhes of ſeveral ſizes not unlike an organ.
gloss: The head.
pos: noun
tags: US
archaic
humorous
slang
examples: ‘What d’ye say about rewardin’ this yer young gent, as walloped his chum on the callybash to help us?’ Ben called after them.
Derived words: black calabash
calabash chalk
calabash nutmeg
calabash pipe
calabash tree
calabash vine
Mexican calabash
sweet calabash
winged calabash
Translations: