bitter watermelon, noun phrase

Forms:
Also bitter watermeloen.
Origin:
South African DutchShow more Translation of South African Dutch bitterwaatlemoen, bitter bitter + waatlemoen watermelon.
obs.
tsamma.
c1822 W.J. Burchell in C.A. Smith Common Names (1966) 109Bitter water Meloen. Cat. Geogr. Sub. 2128.
1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. 48These melons are not, however, all of them eatable; some are sweet, and others are so bitter that the whole are named by the Boers the ‘bitter water-melon’.
1890 P. MacOwan in C.A. Smith Common Names (1966) 109The Bitterwatermelon..is of some medicinal value.
[1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 109Bitterwaatlemoen,..Citrullus lanatus: In general character like the cultivated watermelon..but smaller...The pulp is intensely bitter and has apparently been known since early colonial days for its purgative properties.]
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18221966

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obsolete or obsolescent
bitter-melon, nounn.blaasop, nounn.
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