Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
name
The region of coastal southwestern India, principally the modern state of Kerala.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: India, historical
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
The Tamil language.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A district of British India.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: India, historical
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A suburb of Sydney in the Randwick council area, New South Wales, Australia.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A native of Malabar.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Borrowed from Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century). The second element is either from Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or from Classical Persian بَار (bār, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé) (itself in turn derived from Malayalam മല (mala)), mentioned by traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 5th century as a source of pepper exports, concording with modern-day pepper cultivation on the Malabar coast. Mala ~ Male is, in turn, borrowed from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”). This is also the source of the name of the language: മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ, literally “mountain place”). Compare Zanzibar for a possibly similar word formation.
