Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Bamboo |
BambooAdjective1. Made of bamboo; "bamboo furniture". Noun1. The hard woody stems of bamboo plants; used in construction and crafts and fishing poles. 2. Woody tropical grass having hollow woody stems; mature canes used for construction and furniture. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "bamboo" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1677. (references) |
Etymology: Bamboo \Bam*boo"\, noun. [Malay bambu, mambu.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Bamboo is a group of plants in the grass family (Family Poaceae). Some of its members are giants, and form the largest members of the family. Its stems, or 'culms', can range in height from a few centimeters to 30 metres (100 feet) or more, and from a diameter of a few millimeters (0.1 inch) to over 15 centimetres (6 inches). It is found in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. It spreads mainly through its roots or rhizomes, which can spread widely underground and send off new culms to break through the surface.
Bamboo growing at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire, England.
Larger version
There are two patterns for the spreading of bamboo, clumping and running. Clumping bamboo species tend to spread out undergroun slowly. Running bamboo species, however, can spread several feet a year, are considered very invasive and can cause problems by invading adjacent gardens. It is very difficult to remove bamboo without digging up the entire network of underground rhizomes, for there is no central root to destroy, and destroying the plant above ground will leave the underground rhizome system waiting until next year to send up its shoots.
One way to prevent running bamboo from taking over an area is to surround it with a physical barrier, although in order to be effective the barrier must reach down to below the depth at which the rhizomes spread, which can be several feet.
Established bamboo will send up shoots that generally grow to their full height in a single season, making it one of the fastest growing plants. However a newly transplanted bamboo plant can take many many seasons before its shoots achieve their full potential height.
The shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of bamboo are edible and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms. However, the shoots of some species contain toxins that needs to be leached or boiled out before they can be eaten safely.
Some species of bamboo flower rarely, some of them only every 100 or more years. When these rare flowering species bloom, the plant can die. Furthermore, all the individuals of the species will flower at the same time in a large geographical region. This is thought to be a defence against predators of the seed, who would be unable to depend on a predictable food supply.
Bamboo is the major food source of the giant panda of China.
Bamboo forms a very hard wood, especially when seasoned, making it useful for many things such as fences, bridges, walking sticks, furniture, food steamers, toys, construction scaffolding, hats, abaci and various musical instruments. Modern companies are attempting to popularize laminate flooring made of bamboo pieces steamed, flattened, glued together, finished, and cut.
Cultural aspects
Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of long life, while in India is a symbol of friendship. Its rare blossoms has led to the flowers being regarded as a sign of impending famine. Several Asian cultures, including the Andaman Islands, believe that humanity emerged from a bamboo stem. Malaysian legends include the story of a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside. In the Philippines, bamboo crosses are used as a good luck charm by farmers.See also Japanese knotweed.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bamboo."
Crosswords: Bamboo |
| English words defined with "bamboo": Ailuropoda melanoleuca, Arundinaria ♦ bamboo shoot, Bambusa vulgaris, black bamboo, Bull brier ♦ common bamboo, coon bear ♦ Dendrocalamus giganteus ♦ family Graminaceae, family Gramineae, family Poaceae, fishpole bamboo ♦ genus Arundinaria, giant bamboo, giant panda, giant timber bamboo, gosan-chiku, Graminaceae, Gramineae, grass family ♦ hotei-chiku ♦ ku-chiku, kuri-chiku, kyo-chiku ♦ lathee, lathi ♦ madake ♦ panda, panda bear, Phyllostachys aurea, Phyllostachys bambusoides, Phyllostachys nigra, Poaceae ♦ Tabasheer, Tatta ♦ Wanghee. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "bamboo": CUTTER, WOODWIND REEDS ♦ FUR CLEANER, fur dry-cleaner ♦ GUADUA ANGUSTIFOLIA ♦ improved water wheel ♦ joren ♦ sawdust-machine operator. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Listen to me, you great big bumble-headed bamboo! (His Girl Friday; writing credit: Ben Hecht; Charles MacArthur) In My Country, for Violating sacred beast you get beaten to death with bamboo stick (Say It Isn't So; writing credit: Peter Gaulke; Gerry Swallow) | |
Lyrics | Bamboo earrings (Around the Way Girl; performing artist: L.L. Cool J) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bamboo Gods and Iron Men (1974) The Bamboo Saucer (1968) House of Bamboo (1955) The Bamboo Cross (1955) Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle (1932) | |
Song Titles | Bamboo (performing artist: Paul and Mary Peter) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The trail to Akaka Falls - in a bamboo grove. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Bamboo oyster-culture rafts for Japanese oyster Crassotrea gigas. Ca. 1972. Credit: Small World. |
 | Thatch roof and woven bamboo walls on native dwelling. Credit: Small World. |  | Caption: Edison Photographing Microscopic Cross Section of Bamboo Fibers; West Orange, NJ; 1893; {14.610/7} (jpg). |
 | ... functional façades bristle with bamboo rods hung with brightly coloured clean linen. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by T. Takahara.. |  | S.S. Victoria. Bamboo Room II. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Bangkok - footsoldier holding long bamboo spear. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Bamboo Flute" by Kim Groves Commentary: "My flute made of bamboo." | "Bamboo grove" by Henry Yao Commentary: "In kamakura (outside of tokyo)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | A new age, world music style piece with synthesizers and bamboo flute. | | A bamboo flute playing a slow minor melody very rubato. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Tangled Tale | Carroll, Lewis | Bamboo. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | No Chinese peasant, Eckeberg tells us, goes to the city without carrying back, at the two ends of his bamboo, two buckets full of what we call filth |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | In Gaza there are several furniture factories that make a line of rattan and bamboo furniture that is in demand for outdoor seating areas. (references) | |
Bamboo flooring and paneling for homes, offices and retail sites is gaining in popularity among Chinese consumers, especially for southern Chinese end-users, due to their more traditional appearance and reparability. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Bamboo" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.63% of the time. "Bamboo" is used about 270 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.63% | 269 | 17,948 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.37% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 270 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "bamboo": bamboo brier ♦ bamboo chair ♦ bamboo curtain ♦ bamboo fern ♦ bamboo palm ♦ Bamboo partridge ♦ Bamboo rat ♦ bamboo shoot ♦ bamboo shoots ♦ black bamboo ♦ common bamboo ♦ fishpole bamboo ♦ giant bamboo ♦ giant timber bamboo ♦ the bamboo curtain. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "bamboo": bamboo-cane, bamboo-festooned, bamboo-like, bamboo-reed, bamboo-roofed, bamboo-strip, bamboo-wallah. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
bamboo | 3,116 | bamboo care lucky | 84 |
lucky bamboo | 723 | bamboo care | 77 |
bamboo plant | 631 | lucky bamboo plant | 75 |
bamboo flooring | 621 | bamboo care plant | 74 |
bamboo furniture | 521 | black bamboo | 69 |
bamboo blind | 320 | bamboo bed | 68 |
bamboo floor | 239 | bamboo garden | 62 |
bamboo shades | 211 | bamboo fountain | 61 |
bamboo curtain | 190 | bamboo stick | 59 |
bamboo fence | 185 | bamboo shoot | 57 |
bamboo pole | 172 | bamboo handle purse | 54 |
bamboo fencing | 162 | bamboo nursery | 53 |
growing bamboo | 133 | bamboo hut | 50 |
bamboo fly rod | 133 | bamboo mat | 48 |
bamboo wind chime | 124 | bamboo grow | 45 |
agriculture bamboo shoot | 121 | bamboo beaded curtain | 44 |
bamboo tree | 107 | bamboo product | 43 |
bamboo picture | 100 | bamboo screen | 42 |
bamboo company list shoot | 95 | bamboo chair | 41 |
club bamboo | 93 | heavenly bamboo | 41 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "bamboo"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | bamboes. (various references) | |
Albanian | bastun bambuje, bambu. (various references) | |
Arabic | نبات من فصيلة النجيليات, خيزراني, الخيزران. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | бамбукова тръстика, бамбук. (various references) | |
Chinese | 竹子 . (various references) | |
Czech | bambus. (various references) | |
Danish | bambus. (various references) | |
Dutch | bamboe. (various references) | |
Esperanto | bambuo. (various references) | |
Faeroese | bambus. (various references) | |
Farsi | نی هندی , چوب خیزران , ساخته شده ازنی (Reed), عصای خیزران , خیزران (Rattan). (various references) | |
Finnish | bambu. (various references) | |
French | bambou. (various references) | |
German | Bambus. (various references) | |
Greek | ινδοκάλαμοσ (rattan), μπαμπού. (various references) | |
Hebrew | במבוק. (various references) | |
Hungarian | bambusz, bambusznád. (various references) | |
Indonesian | buluh, bidai (base, basket work, splint), bambu (bamboo-spear). (various references) | |
Irish | bambú. (various references) | |
Italian | bambù. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 竹 (middle of a three-tier ranking system). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たけ (all, another family, height, length, measure, middle, mountain, peak, stature), バンブー . (various references) | |
Korean | 대나무. (various references) | |
Manx | cuirtlagh (cane, reed). (various references) | |
Norwegian | bambus. (various references) | |
Papiamen | bambu. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | amboobay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | bambu. (various references) | |
Romanian | bambus. (various references) | |
Russian | бамбук (Indian cane). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | bambus. (various references) | |
Shona | mushenjere (bamboo plant). (various references) | |
Spanish | bambú. (various references) | |
Sranan | bambu. (various references) | |
Swazi | um-hlangamlambo. (various references) | |
Swedish | bambu (indian cane). (various references) | |
Tagalog | kawáyan. (various references) | |
Thai | ต้นไผ่. (various references) | |
Turkish | bambu (cane). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | винна пальма, бамбукова тростина, бамбуковий, бамбук, бити палицею (cane, club, fustigate). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | cây tre. (various references) | |
Welsh | bambw+. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Bambusa, BAMBUSA ARUNDINACEA, Bambusa spp., GUADUA ANGUSTIFOLIA. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "bamboo": bamboos, bamboozle, bamboozled, bamboozlement, bamboozlements, bamboozles, bamboozling. (additional references) | |
| |
"Bamboo" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: baabu, Babkov, babo, Babuu, Balbo, bambe, bambou, Bambur, bamo, Bandolo, Baumwol, Bembo, Bhamdoun, Bhamo, Biamba, bibio, Bimbim, bimboy, Bimco, binbo, bombo, bonobo, Cambou, Kambou, Mbombo, Mboumbou, Pambio, Sambou, tamboo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-b-m-o-o" | |
-1 letter: baboo. | |
-2 letters: ambo, bomb, boob, boom. | |
-3 letters: abo, bam, boa, bob, boo, moa, mob, moo. | |
-4 letters: ab, am, ba, bo, ma, mo, om. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-b-m-o-o" | |
+1 letter: bamboos. | |
+2 letters: bombload. | |
+3 letters: bamboozle, bombardon, bombloads, broomball. | |
+4 letters: bamboozled, bamboozles, bombardons, broomballs. | |
+5 letters: bamboozling, bombination, broomballer. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
