Meanings
plural massarandubas
- A tropical hardwood tree, Manilkara bidentata, native to South America which produces edible fruit.
The massaranduba is not the only species known as palo de vaca, or cow-tree. There are many others so called, whose sap is of a milky nature.
1867, [Thomas] Mayne Reid, Afloat in the Forest, or, A Voyage among the Tree-tops, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, OCLC 9379166; republished New York, N.Y.: T. R. Knox, 1884, OCLC 24617541, page 1572 more examples
The famous polo de vaca, or "cow-tree" of South America, called massaranduba by the natives, belongs to the natural order of the Atrocarpads, which, by what might appear a curious coincidence, includes also the celebrated bread-fruit.
1882, “A vegetable cow”, in The Iowa Normal Monthly; A Magazine Devoted to Education, volume 6, Dubuque, Iowa: Iowa Normal Monthly Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 422Then the huge reddish trunks of massarandubas began to slide past us, their lofty crowns matting together so thickly that they seemed to make a solid roof.
2005, Arthur O[lney] Friel, “The Tailed Men”, in Amazon Nights: Classic Adventure Tales from the Pulps, [Holicong, Pa.]: Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 97Synonyms: ausubo, balata, bulletwood, bully tree, cow-tree
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA tropical hardwood tree, Manilkara bidentata, native to South America which produces edible fruit.
Origin
- Old Tupi*masarana?
- Old Tupi'yba
- Old Tupimasarandyba
- Brazilian Portuguesemassaranduba
- Englishmassaranduba
Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese massaranduba, from Old Tupi masarandyba.
More words from Brazilian Portuguese, Old Tupi
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
massaranduba. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/massaranduba
“massaranduba.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/massaranduba. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “massaranduba,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/massaranduba.
Source: massaranduba on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.