Also 8 bullet. [Etymology uncertain: variously referred to Eng. bully, dial. form of BULLACE (cf. the 2nd quot.), and to F. boulet de canon (lit. cannon-ball) ‘fruit d’un arbre de la Guiane’ (Boiste). The form bullet occurs only late, and the F. name may be due to popular etymology.]
attrib. in Bully Bay, Bully-berry Tree, Bully Tree, names for certain genera of the order Sapotaceæ, also for a species of Mimusops (all natives of the W. Indies and of Guiana).
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 14. Lofty trees, as the Palmeto, Royal … Bully, Redwood. Ibid., 73. The Bully tree … bears a fruit like a Bullis in England.
1693. Phil. Trans., XVII. 621. The Sope-Berry … Indian Damozen, and the Bully Bay.
1725. Sloane, Jamaica, II. 124. When old it had a great many sulci not unlike the Bully tree.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 177. The Bully-Berry tree … a very durable timber tree.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. xxviii. 335. The bullet-tree … the bark is grey and smooth, the timber brown, variegated or powdered with white specks.
1866. Treas. Bot., Bully or Bullet Tree … a species of Mimusops.
