bamboo

English

Bamboo.

Etymology

Borrowing from Dutch bamboe, from Portuguese bambu, from Malay bambu, from Kannada ಬಂಬು (baṃbu).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bæmˈbu/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

bamboo (countable and uncountable, plural bamboos)

1. A grass of the Poaceae family, characterised by its woody, hollow, round, straight, jointed stem, all of which are in the Bambuseae tribe.
2. The wood of the bamboo plant as a material or cane.
3. A didgeridoo.
4. (slang) A member of the British military or British East India Company who spent so much time in Indonesia, India, or Malaysia that they never went back home.

Derived terms

• bamboo ceiling
• bamboo clam
• Bamboo Curtain, bamboo curtain
• bamboo man
• bamboo rat

Translations

plant

• Acholi: koo
• Albanian: bambu (sq)
• Arabic: خَيْزَرَان‏‎ m (ḵayzarān), خَيْزُرَان‏‎ m (ḵayzurān)

  Egyptian Arabic: خيزران‏‎ m (xayzaran), بامبو‏‎ m (bambu)

• Armenian: բամբուկ (hy) (bambuk)
• Asturian: bambú m
• Azeri: bambuk (az)
• Banjarese: buluh, paring
• Belarusian: бамбу́к m (bambúk)
• Bengali: বাঁশ (baṁśô)
• Bikol Central: kawayan
• Bulgarian: бамбу́к m (bambúk)
• Burmese: ဝါး (my) (wa:)
• Catalan: bambú (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 竹子 (zh) (zhúzi)

  Min Dong: 竹 (dé̤ṳk)

  Min Nan: 竹仔 (zh-min-nan) (tek-á)

• Czech: bambus (cs) m
• Danish: bambus c
• Dutch: bamboe (nl) n
• Esperanto: bambuo
• Estonian: bambus (et)
• Faroese: bambus n
• Finnish: bambu (fi)
• French: bambou (fr) m
• Galician: bambú (gl) m
• Georgian: ბამბუკი (bambuḳi)
• German: Bambus (de) m
• Greek: μπαμπού (el) n (bampoú)
• Hawaiian: ʻohe
• Hebrew: בַּמְבּוּק‏‎ (he) m (bambuk), חִזְרָן‏‎ m (khizran)
• Hindi: बांस (bāns), बाँस (hi) (bā̃s)
• Hungarian: bambusz (hu)
• Icelandic: bambus m
• Indonesian: buluh (id), bambu (id), aur (id)
• Irish: bambú m
• Isan: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: bambù (it) m
• Japanese: 竹 (ja) (たけ, take)
• Kannada: ಬಿದಿರು (kn) (bidiru)
• Kazakh: бамбук (bambwk)
• Khmer: ឫស្សី (km) (rɨhsəy)
• Korean: 대나무 (ko) (daenamu)

• Kyrgyz: бамбук (ky) m (bambuk)
• Lao: ໄມ້ໄຜ່ (mai phai)
• Latin: harundō Indica f
• Latvian: bambuss m
• Lithuanian: bambukas m
• Lü: ᦺᦙᧉᦌᦱᧂ (may²saang)
• Macedonian: бамбус m (bambus)
• Malay: pering

  Rumi: buluh (ms), bambu (ms), aur

  Jawi: بولوه‏‎, بمبو‏‎, اءور‏‎

• Maori: inanga
• Mongolian: хулс (mn) (huls)
• Navajo: lókʼaatsoh
• Norman: bambou m
• Northern Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bambus m

• Persian: خیزران‏‎ (fa) (xayzarân)
• Portuguese: bambu (pt) m
• Romanian: bambus (ro) m, bambu m
• Russian: бамбу́к (ru) m (bambúk)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бамбус m

  Roman: trskovača (sh) f, bambus (sh) m

• Shan: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: bambus (sk) m
• Slovene: bambus (sl) m
• Spanish: bambú (es) m
• Sundanese: awi (su)
• Swahili: mwanzi
• Swedish: bambu (sv) c
• Tagalog: kawayan
• Tajik: бамбук (bambuk)
• Thai: ไผ่ (th) (pài)
• Tibetan: སྨྱུག་མ (smyug ma)
• Tok Pisin: mambu
• Turkish: bambu (tr)
• Turkmen: bambuk (tk)
• Ukrainian: бамбу́к (uk) m (bambúk)
• Urdu: بانس‏‎ (bāns)
• Uzbek: bambuk (uz)
• Vietnamese: tre (vi), trúc (vi)
• Volapük: bambud (vo), (obsolete) lerid
• Waray-Waray: kawayan
• Welsh: bambŵ m
• Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

wood

• Albanian: bambu (sq)
• Asturian: bambú m
• Bulgarian: бамбу́к m (bambúk)
• Catalan: bambú (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 竹子 (zh) (zhúzi), 竹材 (zhúcái)

• Czech: bambus (cs) m
• Dutch: bamboe (nl) n
• Finnish: bambu (fi)
• French: bambou (fr) m
• Galician: bambú (gl) m
• German: Bambus (de) m, Bambusrohr (de) n
• Hawaiian: ʻohe
• Hebrew: במבוק‏‎ (he) m (bambuq), חִזְרָן‏‎ m (khizran)
• Irish: bambú m
• Italian: bambù (it) m

• Japanese: 竹 (ja) (たけ, take), 竹材 (たけざい, takezai)
• Macedonian: бамбус m (bambus)
• Malay:

  Rumi: buluh (ms), bambu (ms), aur

  Jawi: بولوه‏‎, بمبو‏‎, اءور‏‎

• Norman: bambou m
• Portuguese: bambu (pt) m
• Russian: бамбу́к (ru) m (bambúk), бамбу́ковая трость f (bambúkovaja trostʹ)
• Slovene: bambus (sl) m
• Spanish: bambú (es) m
• Swedish: bambu (sv) c
• Tagalog: kawayan
• Thai: ไม้ไผ่ (th) (máai pài)
• Tok Pisin: mambu
• Welsh: bambŵ m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

The translations below need to be checked by native speakers and inserted into the appropriate table(s) above. It is not currently clear to which sense(s) these translations apply.

• Isthmus Zapotec: ^{(please verify)} bixiá

Adjective

bamboo (not comparable)

1. Made of the wood of the bamboo.

Translations

made of bamboo

• Bulgarian: бамбуков (bambukov)
• Chinese: 竹製的, 竹製的 (zhú zhì de)
• Czech: bambusový (cs) m
• Dutch: bamboe-
• Esperanto: bambua
• French: de bambou
• Hungarian: bambusz (hu)
• Italian: di bambù

• Japanese: 竹製の (たけせいの, takesei no)
• Macedonian: бамбусов m (bambusov)
• Polish: bambus (pl) m
• Portuguese: de bambu
• Russian: бамбу́ковый (ru) (bambúkovyj)
• Slovene: bambusov
• Tagalog: kawayan
• Tok Pisin: mambu

Verb

bamboo (third-person singular simple present bamboos, present participle bambooing, simple past and past participle bambooed)

1. (transitive) To flog with a bamboo cane.
   • 1880, Herbert Giles (translator), Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, London: Thomas de la Rue & Co., Vol. II, p. 18, footnote, [1]

     […] the beadle is punished by fine, and sometimes bambooed, if robberies are too frequent within his jurisdiction, or if he fails to secure the person of any malefactor particularly wanted by his superior officers.

2. (transitive) To paint (furniture, etc.) to give it the appearance of bamboo.
   • 1994, Penny Swift, The Complete Book of Paint Techniques, New Holland, p. 67, [2]

     The craze for bambooing furniture and accessories was one of many popular paint techniques in the 18th century and early Victorian era.

3. (India, slang) To penetrate sexually.
   • 2006, Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games, Penguin, 2008, [3]

     If you're just a girl from Lucknow, with no fluid cash, you'll be just one more among thousands going from producer to producer by auto-rickshaw, and every photographer who agrees to take a picture for your portfolio will want to introduce you to his bed upstairs in the loft. And what you'll get out of all this in the end is a lot of bambooing and maybe a dance or two in his videos.

   • 2013, Nandini Bhattacharya, Hindi Cinema: Repeating the Subject, London: Routledge, Chapter 5, [4]

     One scene of attachment and intimacy shows Vijay careening into their shared apartment dead drunk and insulting a praying Ajay for his devotion to the household god, Hanuman […] , saying that instead of being rescued Ajay will be "bamboo-ed," a popular slang for anal penetration.

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Gooniyandi

Noun

bamboo

1. didgeridoo

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Mandinka

Noun

bamboo

1. crocodile