imbe

See also: Imbé and imbé

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

imbe (plural imbes)

1. The originally African tree Garcinia livingstonei.
   • 1928, Otis Warren Barrett, The Tropical Crops:

     The danealan, G. subelliptica, is a 30- to 40-foot tree of the eastern coast of Luzon. [...] The imbe has fruited in southern Florida, but probably it is too exacting in its ecological requirements for general cultivation.

   • 1944, John MacLaren Waterston, Fruit Culture in Bermuda ...:

     Garcinia livingstonei T. Anders., The Imbe, Guttiferae.
     The Imbe has proved quite hardy and successful on the sandy and limestone rock soils of Southern Florida. The fruit obtained [...]

   • 1960, William Crawford Kennard, H. F. Winters, Some Fruits and Nuts for the Tropics, page 67:

     Figure 46. - The imbe, Garcinia livingstonei.

   • 1993, Tropical Fruit News, page 102:

     Trees grow slowly and this makes them ideal for pot culture; in fact, many people grow imbe as a container tropical fruit for small landscapes. Imbes have separate sexes, so this means you have to have both a male and a female tree ...

   • 1993, James J. Darley, Know and Enjoy Tropical Fruit: Tropical Fruit and Nuts: a Cornucopia, P&S Publishing, →ISBN, page 45:

     Purple mangosteen trees have only female flowers and pollen fertilisation is not required. [...] Other Garcinia species, have less to recommend them as a fruit tree; the imbe (G. livingstonei) is small fruited, has a large seed and a little sour flesh.

   • 2006, Susanna Lyle, Discovering Fruit & Nuts: A Comprehensive Guide to the Cultivation, Uses and Health Benefits of Over 300 Food-Producing Plants:

     (Guttiferae) Relatives: mangosteen
     A native of eastern Africa, the imbe forms an interestingly-shaped tree and has numerous sweet-sub-acid, tasty bright orange fruits, which can be eaten fresh. It is only cultivated locally ...

   • 2008, National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Development, Security, and Cooperation, Lost Crops of Africa: Volume III: Fruits, National Academies Press (→ISBN), page 291:

     Africa's best-known mangosteen relative is the imbe, a tree whose soft and colorful fruits brighten up markets [...]. Imbes come from a shrub or small tree with a dense spreading or conical crown topping a short, often twisted trunk [...]

Translations

Translations

• Bambara: súmesunsun
• Somali: dhamaag

See also

• imbé (“the South American liana Philodendron imbe”)

Anagrams

• mebi-

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *imbī, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *a(m)pi- (“stinging insect, bee”). Cognate with Middle Dutch imme (Dutch imme) and Old High German imbi (German Imme). The proposed Indo-European root would also be the source of Ancient Greek ἐμπίς (empís), Latin apis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈim.be/

Noun

imbe n

1. swarm of bees

Usage notes

Only attested in late form ymbe.

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈimʲbʲe/

Noun

imbe n (genitive imbi)

1. verbal noun of im·fen
2. fence

Inflection

Neuter io-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	imbeN	imbeL	imbeL
Vocative	imbeN	imbeL	imbeL
Accusative	imbeN	imbeL	imbeL
Genitive	imbiL	imbeL	imbeN
Dative	imbiuL	imbib	imbib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
imbe (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	unchanged	n-imbe
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “imbe”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language