rattan

See also: Rattan and råttan

English
Rattan palm with fruits.
Baskets made of rattan.

Etymology

Borrowed from Malay rotan.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɹəˈtæn/
  • Rhymes: -æn

Noun

rattan (countable and uncountable, plural rattans)

  1. Any of several species of climbing palm of the genus Calamus.
  2. (uncountable) The plant used as a material for making furniture, baskets etc.
  3. (by extension) A cane made from this material.
    • 1906, Walter William Skeat, Charles Otto Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula
      He who first acts as striker asks the other how many blows of the rattan he will bear on his forearm without crying out.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
      “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
    • 2008, Jean-François Bayart, Andrew Brown, Global Subjects: A Political Critique of Globalization
      […] the rattan is still a valued instrument of discipline […]

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