Malabar

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Malabar

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From Arabic مَلَبَار (malabār), first attested in the writings of Iranian scholar Al-Biruni (c. 11th century).^[1][2] The second element is Arabic بَرّ (barr, “land, ground”) or Persian بار (bâr, “coast”), and the first element is the same as the Byzantine Greek toponym Μαλέ (Malé), mentioned by traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 5th century as a source of pepper exports, concording with modern-day pepper cultivation on the Malabar coast.^[3]

Mala ~ Male is, in turn, borrowed from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”). This is also the source of the name of the language: മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ, literally “mountain place”). Compare Zanzibar for a possibly similar word formation.

Malabar

1. (India, chiefly historical) The region of coastal southwestern India, principally the modern state of Kerala.
2. (India, historical) A district of British India.

• Malabar Coast

Malabar (plural Malabars)

1. A native of Malabar.
   • 1883, Ernst Haeckel, India and Ceylon, page 50:

     The Singhalese dialect seems to have sprung from the Pali language, while the Malabars speak the entirely dissimilar Tamil language.

• Barlaam