mesquite

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish mezquite, mizquite, from Nahuatl mizquitl (“mesquite tree”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛsˈkiːt/, /ˈmɛskiːt/

Noun

mesquite (plural mesquites)

1. Any of several deciduous trees of the genus Prosopis found in North America, and used as forage, which have long, beige seed/bean pods which may be dried and ground into a sweet, nutty flour.
   • 1909, Volney Morgan Spalding, Distribution and movements of desert plants‎:

     […] and no botanist could for a moment fail to recognize this fact, especially as just beyond its banks there is growing on every hand the mesquite, the everywhere-present species of the Lower Sonoran zone.

2. The wood of these trees, used for smoking food, or charcoal made from this wood.
3. Country or land dominated by mesquite trees.
   • 1900, David Prescott Barrows, The ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California‎:

     Southward and in the very center of the plain is La Mesa, hidden in the mesquite and with splendid, typically dug, wells.

Noun

mesquite f (plural mesquites)

1. mesquite (any of the North-American deciduous trees of the genus Prosopis)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mes.ˈki.te/
• Homophone: mezquite (non-Castilian dialects)

Noun

mesquite m (plural mesquites)

1. (Mexico) Alternative spelling of mezquite