Forms: 6 archa, arreca, 7 arrequa, arecca, 8 areka, 9 areeka, 7– areca; also 7 areque, arek, 8 areek, 9 arak. [a. Pg. areca, ad. Malayálam áḍekka, = Canarese áḍike, Tamil áḍaikāy, f. aḍai denoting close arrangement of the cluster + kāy nut, fruit (Bp. Caldwell). The accent is on the first syllable in all the languages.]
Name of the tree and fruit of a genus of palms, of which one species (A. Catechu) bears nuts of the size of a nutmeg, which the natives roll up with a little lime in the leaves of the betel, and chew, thereby tingeing their teeth and saliva red.
[1510. Varthema, Trav. transl. J. W. Jones (1863), 144. The tree of the said coffolo is called Arecha.]
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 223. Great quantie of Archa … which fruit they eat … with the leaf of an Herbe which they call Bettell. Ibid., II. I. 262. Cocos, figges, arrecaes, and other fruits.
1615. trans. De Monfart’s Surv. E. Indies, 39. The fruit … called Areque.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, II. 1157. This Arrequa … maketh men almost drunke.
1702. W. J., Le Bruyn’s Voy. Levant (1737), II. lxvii. 101. The Areek is a fruit which grows in thick bunches.
1808. Parsons, Trav. Asia, xii. 259. Arak nuts, wrapped in beetle leaf.
1871. Mateer, Travancore, 56. The thick, leather-like leaf sheath of the areca palm tree.
