Also 8 in F. form tombe. [Native name.] General African W. Coast name of the fruit of the wine palm, Raphia vinifera; also, the native palm wine obtained from it.
1704. Barbot’s Guinea, in Churchill’s Voy., V. 144. The fruit produced by the tombe tree, from which they also draw the wine called bourdon or tombe.
1819. Rees, Cycl., s.v. Ivory, A species of fruit growing on a sort of palmtree, which the natives call tombo or bourbon.
1908. Daily Chron., 7 Dec., 4/4. Considerable evidence … adduced to show that intoxication is more frequent from drinking tombo and other native brews than from drinking imported spirit.
