malabar
/ˈmæləˌbɑɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.63 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A suburb of Sydney in the Randwick council area, New South Wales, Australia.
noun
A native of Malabar.
Example Sentences
- "The Singhalese dialect seems to have sprung from the Pali language, while the Malabars speak the entirely dissimilar Tamil language."
Etymology
Borrowed from Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century). The second element is either from Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or from Classical Persian بَار (bār, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé) (itself in turn derived from Malayalam മല (mala)), mentioned by traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 5th century as a source of pepper exports, concording with modern-day pepper cultivation on the Malabar coast. Mala ~ Male is, in turn, borrowed from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”). This is also the source of the name of the language: മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ, literally “mountain place”). Compare Zanzibar for a possibly similar word formation.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: بَرّ, بَار, -, മല
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmæləˌbɑɹ/
- British English: /ˈmæləˌbɑː/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Malabar almond
Malabar barbet
Malabar chestnut
Malabar Coast
Malabar creeper
Malabar flying frog
Malabar gourd
Malabar grey hornbill