[a. Pg. (and mod.Lat.) carambola. Several Portuguese writers of the 16th c. state that this was the native name in Malabar: Molesworth has Mahrattī karanbal; Forbes Watson has a Hindī name karmal, Singhalese and Hindī kāma-ranga, Skr. karma-ranga. (Marsden has Malay karambil coco-nut.) Linnæus took the Pg. name into botanical Latin.]
The acid fruit (golden-yellow, ellipsoid, obscurely 10-ribbed) of a small East Indian tree Averrhoa Carambola, (N.O. Oxalidaceæ); also the tree itself.
1598. trans. Linschoten’s Voy., 96, note. The fruite which the Malabars and Portingales call Carambolas, is in Decan called Camarix, in Canar Camarix and Carabeli.
1887. Standard, 16 Sept., 5/3. The carambola and the Otaheite apple.
