[Mexican: orig. ‘raft.’] The native name of the floating-gardens formerly used on the lakes of Mexico, consisting of a wooden raft covered with earth.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 207. The form usually given to these Chinampas was quadrangular…. At first the use of these floating gardens was confined to the growth of maize and other objects of … necessity…. In time … the owners … applied themselves to the production of vegetable luxuries.
1852. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., II. xx. 250. Covered with aquatic plants, they resemble … floating meadows, the chinampas or floating gardens of the Mexican lakes.
