accoma

plural accomas

1. countablerareuncountableA large tree, Sideroxylon foetidissimum, (possibly native to the island of Hispaniola); also, the very hard wood harvested from it, used especially for shipbuilding.

   Accoma, n. m., a large tree suitable for building, a very hard wood.

   1802, Ducœurjoly quoted by Pierre Rézeau, “Lexical aspects of French and Creole in Saint-Domingue at the end of the eighteenth century” in History, Society and Variation: In Honor of Albert Valdman (2006) ed. J. Clancy Clements, page 67

   2 more examples

   DOMINGO, SAINT. This island is situated in the Atlantic ocean, fifty miles east of Cuba, and seventy miles east of Jamaica. The country is well stocked with cattle, oak, cedar, pine, Brazil wood, manchineal, the maho, and accoma tree.

   1811, Joshua Montefiore, The American Trader’s Compendium, page 143

   Continued the prisoner: ‘the chicaron and the sabiecca for a ship’s keel; the yaba for the knees; the tocuma for the ribs; the hacama, the gaïac, the cedar, the accoma — ’.

   1894, Victor Hugo, translated by George Burnham Ives, Bug-Jargal, page 146