Also ti-ti. [Native Polynesian: cf. KI.] Native name of several trees of the genus Cordyline (formerly included in Dracæna), N.O. Liliaceæ, with edible roots; in Polynesia, C. terminalis; in New Zealand, C. australis and C. indivisa; known also as cabbage-palm, CABBAGE-TREE, club palm, and palm-lily (PALM sb.1 1 c, 7).
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xviii. (1873), 410. A liliaceous plant called Ti.
1845. E. J. Wakefield, Adv. N. Zealand, I. iii. 58. In these natural shrubberies … a kind of cabbage-tree, called ti by the natives, flourishes.
1896. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 240. The ti and the apé are taken out well cooked. The apé prevents the ti from getting too dry in the oven.
b. attrib., as ti-leaf, -palm, -plant, -root, -tree, etc.; ti-oven, an oven for cooking ti-roots.
1840. Lundie, Mission. Life Samoa, xiv. (1846), 89. Many women having no dress but the ti leaves round the waist.
1866. Lady Barker, Station Life N. Zealand, viii. (1870), 52. Ti-ti palms are dotted here and there.
1881. Mrs. C. Praed, Policy & P., I. 109. The tender shoots of the young ti-trees.
1882. T. H. Potts, Out in Open, 297 (Morris). The tough, fibrous leaves of the ti-palm.
1896. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 240. The ti-ovens are frequently thirty feet in diameter.
