imbe

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

imbe (plural imbes)

1. The originally African tree Garcinia livingstonei.
   • 1928, Otis Warren Barrett, The Tropical Crops:

     The danealan, G. subelliptica, is a 30- to 40-foot tree of the eastern coast of Luzon. [...] The imbe has fruited in southern Florida, but probably it is too exacting in its ecological requirements for general cultivation.

   • 1944, John MacLaren Waterston, Fruit Culture in Bermuda ...:

     Garcinia livingstonei T. Anders., The Imbe, Guttiferae.
     The Imbe has proved quite hardy and successful on the sandy and limestone rock soils of Southern Florida. The fruit obtained [...]

   • 1960, William Crawford Kennard, H. F. Winters, Some Fruits and Nuts for the Tropics, page 67:

     Figure 46. - The imbe, Garcinia livingstonei.

   • 1993, Tropical Fruit News, page 102:

     Trees grow slowly and this makes them ideal for pot culture; in fact, many people grow imbe as a container tropical fruit for small landscapes. Imbes have separate sexes, so this means you have to have both a male and a female tree ...

   • 1993, James J. Darley, Know and Enjoy Tropical Fruit: Tropical Fruit and Nuts: a Cornucopia, P&S Publishing, →ISBN, page 45:

     Purple mangosteen trees have only female flowers and pollen fertilisation is not required. [...] Other Garcinia species, have less to recommend them as a fruit tree; the imbe (G. livingstonei) is small fruited, has a large seed and a little sour flesh.

   • 2006, Susanna Lyle, Discovering Fruit & Nuts: A Comprehensive Guide to the Cultivation, Uses and Health Benefits of Over 300 Food-Producing Plants:

     (Guttiferae) Relatives: mangosteen
     A native of eastern Africa, the imbe forms an interestingly-shaped tree and has numerous sweet-sub-acid, tasty bright orange fruits, which can be eaten fresh. It is only cultivated locally ...

   • 2008, National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Development, Security, and Cooperation, Lost Crops of Africa: Volume III: Fruits, National Academies Press (→ISBN), page 291:

     Africa's best-known mangosteen relative is the imbe, a tree whose soft and colorful fruits brighten up markets [...]. Imbes come from a shrub or small tree with a dense spreading or conical crown topping a short, often twisted trunk [...]

• imbé (“the South American liana Philodendron imbe”)

• mebi-

From Proto-West Germanic *imbī, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *a(m)pi- (“stinging insect, bee”). Cognate with Middle Dutch imme (Dutch imme) and Old High German imbi (German Imme). The proposed Indo-European root would also be the source of Ancient Greek ἐμπίς (empís), Latin apis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈim.be/

imbe n

1. swarm of bees

Only attested in late form ymbe.

• IPA^(key): /ˈimʲbʲe/

imbe n (genitive imbi)

1. verbal noun of im·fen
2. fence

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “imbe”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language