betel
- 1An evergreen Indian creeping shrub, Piper betle, whose dried leaves are chewed together with betel nut.
The cook smeared lime paste across a glossy betel leaf before folding it.
Farmers trellis betel along bamboo frames to keep the vines off the wet ground.
- 2An Asian palm, Areca catechu, and especially its seed: the areca nut, also called betel nut.
She sliced a dried betel into thin slivers for the afternoon guests.
Rows of betel palms swayed above the rice fields near the coast.
Similarareca
Note
Here the name travels by association. The palm, Areca catechu, is a different plant from the leafy creeping vine. Its seed shares the betel name because the two are chewed together. Areca nut is the botanically exact name, and it is the safer choice whenever the vine could be meant. Betel palm likewise names the tree, never the leaf-bearing plant.
- 3A chewing preparation made of betel leaf, betel nut, and other plant materials wrapped together; also called paan.
The old man folded a fresh betel and offered it to his visitor.
At weddings, trays of betel are handed out as a gesture of welcome.
Similarpaan
Note
The chew itself, named after its two main ingredients. Its most vivid trace is the color: in Orwell's Burmese Days (1934) a man spits "a scarlet mouthful of betel." Like the plant senses, it usually works as a mass noun, as in chewing betel or a mouthful of betel. Paan names the same preparation. Doniger and Kakar's Kama Sutra (2002) still lists areca nuts and betel leaves separately among gifts.
- 4Either of two plants, or their parts, that are commonly used together.
Betel remains central to everyday hospitality in many parts of South Asia.
Traders once carried betel by ship to ports all around the Indian Ocean.
Note
An umbrella sense that covers both halves of the chew: the leaf of one plant and the nut of another. English took the word through Portuguese bétele, from Malayalam veṟṟila or Tamil veṟṟilai. Because betel alone can point to either plant, writers usually name the part they mean. R. K. Narayan's The Guide (1958) speaks of "the tingling effect of betel leaves." Betel leaf and betel nut are the unambiguous forms.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from Portuguese "bétele", which in turn came from Malayalam "veṟṟila" or Tamil "veṟṟilai".