cabbage palm

English

Alternative forms

• cabbage-palm

Noun

cabbage palm (plural cabbage palms)

1. Any of several different types of palms and palm-like plants.
2. (Australia) Any of several palms of the genera Corypha and Livistona of northeastern and central Australia. [from 18th c.]
   • 1791, Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, Discoveries of the French in 1768 and 1769, page 54:

     Their cabbage, which is known by the name of cabbage-palm, is susceptible of many modes of dressing, and may be ranked among the most delicious foods.

   • 2006, Tara June Winch, Swallow the Air, in Heiss & Minter, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 242:

     It isn't bad when we come back; we notice little similarities to our dreaming places. The cabbage palms, the fire pit, the family.

Anagrams

• palm cabbage