Malabar

See also: malabar

English

Malabar as a name for SW India generally on a 1774 map

Malabar District under the British Raj

Etymology

From Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century). The second element is Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or Persian بار (bâr, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé), 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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmæləˌbɑː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmæləˌbɑɹ/

Proper noun

Malabar

1. (India, chiefly historical) The region of coastal southwestern India, principally the modern state of Kerala.
2. (obsolete) the Tamil language.
3. (India, historical) A district of British India.
4. A suburb of Sydney in the Randwick council area, New South Wales, Australia.

Synonyms

• Malabar Coast

Derived terms

• Malabar almond
• Malabar barbet
• Malabar chestnut
• Malabar Coast
• Malabar creeper
• Malabar flying frog
• Malabar gourd
• Malabar grey hornbill
• Malabari
• Malabar itch
• Malabar lark
• Malabar nightshade
• Malabar nut
• Malabar pied hornbill
• Malabar rat
• Malabar spinach
• Malabar starling
• Malabar trogon
• Malabar whistling thrush
• Malabar woodshrike

Noun

Malabar (plural Malabars)

1. A native of Malabar.
   • 1883, Ernst Haeckel, India and Ceylon, page 50:

     The Singhalese dialect seems to have sprung from the Pali language, while the Malabars speak the entirely dissimilar Tamil language.

Translations

native of Malabar

Anagrams

• Barlaam