Nipa

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tropical palm with feathery fronds that grows in brackish mangrove swamps across Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands
2. An Asian and Pacific mangrove palm whose long leaves are used for thatching roofs and weaving mats
3. A palm tree of coastal tropical swamps, native to Southeast Asia and Oceania, valued for its fronds and sap

Etymology: Nipa is a palm, Nypa fruticans, that grows in brackish mangrove swamps and along tidal rivers from India across Southeast Asia and into the Pacific. English took the word from Malay "nipah," the name for the same plant, and it was used for the palm and for the leaves and thatch made from it. The word also has an unexpected second life far from Asia. A separate form, "ɲipa," belongs to the Cocopa people of the lower Colorado River region in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States, and it is a different word with an unrelated origin. Its appearance in the same entry as the Malay term is a matter of coincidence in sound rather than a shared root.

Synonyms: nipa palm