Etymology

areca

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Today it means: Any member of the genus Areca of about fifty species of single-stemmed palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests. Full definition →

Malayalam അടയ്ക്ക ← Proto-Dravidian *aṭ-ay-kkāy
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The story

  1. Proto-Dravidian · derived from*aṭ-ay-kkāy“areca nut”
  2. Malayalam · derived fromഅടയ്ക്ക
  3. English todayareca

Via Portuguese from Malayalam അടയ്ക്ക (aṭaykka), itself from Proto-Dravidian *aṭ-ay-kkāy (“areca nut”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.