guaxima

English

Etymology

Said by Century to be from a Tupian word guazima, guajima. (Compare guanxuma, guanxima, sometimes encountered as names of a malva.)

Noun

guaxima (plural guaximas)

1. Urena lobata, a Brazilian plant, or the useful fiber it yields.
   • 1876, The Empire of Brazil at the Universal Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, page 49:

     From the liber^[sic] of the guaxima (Urena lobata) are made excellent paper and the cordage and the vegetable wool, mentioned in another place, which did not pass unobserved at the exhibition of Vienna.

   • 1907 July-September, George E. Anderson, Brazilian fibers, in Monthly Consular and Trade Reports, numbers 322-324, page 114:

     [...] the possible development of the scheme to manufacture coffee bags from guaxima, botanical name Urena lobata. The attempt here has been to manufacture the bags from what is known as aranina, an upcountry species of the guaxima.

   • 1947, Britain Bragunier Robinson, Tallmadge Bergen, Statuts of the Fiber Plant Industry in Latin America, page 25:

     A large number of fibers, both wild and cultivated, are produced in Brazil. They include caroa, sisal, phormium, jute, ramie, flax, guaxima and many others. Jute is of special interest [...]

   • 1966, Department of Agriculture - appropriations for 1967 - Hearings before the US House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on the Department of Agriculture and Related Agencies:

     Production of kenaf in Thailand and India, and guaxima fiber in Brazil totaled 1.3 billion pounds in 1965, 9 percent more than in [...]

Hyponyms

• aranina, aramina

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “guaxima”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes II (D–Hoon), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• guaxuma, guanxuma, guanxima, guaximba, uacima
• aguaxima, guainxuma, uaxima, uaicima (dated)
• guacima, uaissima, guachima (obsolete)
• guaxiúma (rare)
• guachuma, uassima (rare, obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Tupi gûaxima.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡwaˈʃĩ.mɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡwaˈʃĩ.mɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ɡwaˈʃi.ma/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɡwɐˈʃi.mɐ/

• Hyphenation: gua‧xi‧ma

Noun

guaxima f (plural guaximas)

1. guaxima (Urena lobata, a flowering plant of Brazil sometimes grown for its fibre)

   Synonyms: guaxima-roxa, aramina, malva, carrapicho

   • 1789, Jozé Henriques Ferreira, Memorias Economicas da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, para o Adiantamento da Agricultura, das Artes, e da Industria em Portugal, e suas Conquistas. Tomo I, Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, page 1:

     No Rio de Janeiro, e talvez por todo o nosso Brazil, nasce espontanea e abundante huma planta propriamente arbusto, a qual os do Paiz chamaõ Guaxima […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. sida (any of the flowering plants of the genus Sida)

   Synonyms: vassourinha, relógio

Derived terms

• Guaxima
• guaxima-da-praia
• guaxima-do-mangue
• guaxima-roxa