calabash

calabash (KAL-uh-bash) - n., the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), grown as a vegetable (fresh) and as containers (dried); a tropical American tree (Crescentia cujete) with a similar gourd-like fruit; any of several plants with similar fruit; the fruit of all such plants; the hollowed out shell of such fruit, used as a container or utensil; a bottle, ladel, etc. made from such a shell.


A very useful thing to have, and the bottle gourd of the first sense is thought to be the first plant cultivated not for eating, or not just for eating. It's difficult to be certian, given how widespread and for how long it is grown, but it's believed to have originated in Africa. The word dates to the 1590s, from French calabasse, from Spanish calabaza, from Catalan carabaça, perhaps from Arabic qarʿah yābisah, gourd (that is) dry, from Persian xarboze, melon, possibly ultimately from Sanskrit trapusa.


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.