Melinjo

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tropical Southeast Asian tree whose seeds and young leaves are eaten as food, often used in cooking in Indonesia
2. An evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia, valued for its edible seeds and leaves that are prepared in various local dishes
3. A gnetum tree of tropical Asia bearing nut-like seeds and tender leaves that are commonly cooked and eaten in regional cuisine

Etymology: Melinjo is the name of a tree, Gnetum gnemon, native to Southeast Asia, whose seeds and leaves are eaten across Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The English word is a borrowing from Malay and Indonesian "melinjo," and it is the most recent of the tree's names to reach English, appearing in print only in the twentieth century, not in the older botanical literature that named most tropical plants. Botanists in the nineteenth century described the genus under Latin names based on the tree's leaves, so the everyday local name entered English later and mostly through travel writing and food. The tree is a gymnosperm, not a flowering plant, and its closest relatives are the Gnetum genus and a few other tropical lineages. Its leaves and seeds are its most valued parts, with the seeds often made into crackers called emping. The word therefore names a plant that ordinary English speakers encounter mainly through the foods made from it rather than through the tree itself.