α. 1600s 1800s pinpillow.
β. 1700s pimpillo, 1700s– pimploe, 1800s pimplo, 1900s– plimploe.
pimploen.
/ˈpɪmpləʊ/, U.S. /ˈpɪmˌploʊ/, Caribbean English /ˈpɪmploː/ Chiefly Caribbean.
= prickly pear n. Cf. pimpler n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular fruit-tree or -plant > [noun] > tropical or exotic fruit-tree or -plant > prickly pear plants
tuna1555
Opuntia1601
prickled pear1610
prickle pear1610
prickpear1622
Indian fig1631
prickly pear1696
pimploe1698
pear1805
1698 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 20 35 Ficus Indica s. Opuntia... The Pin-pillow.
1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados 26 By the force of the wind..thrown into a prickly Pimploe hedge.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 322 Pimpillo, Cactus.
1808 J. Poyer Hist. Barbados iii. 102 The pitiless storm..blew them from their bridal chamber; and, with relentless fury, lodged them in a pimploe hedge.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 892/1 Pin-pillow, Opuntia curassavica.
1889 J. S. Farmer Americanisms Pimplo, a Barbadian term for the prickly pear..a corruption of ‘pin-pillow’.
1994 B. Heydorn Walk Good Guyana Boy xxvii. 166 The hair on his legs sprouting out like a dense growth of plimploe bush on a vine.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1698