Bamboo in Malayalam
Bamboo in Malayalam is മുള (mula). The same short word also means a shoot or sprout, which makes sense given how bamboo grows, and it is the ordinary term used by builders, basket makers and farmers in Kerala.
Shoot, sprout, seedling, bamboo.
തോട്ടത്തിൽ പുതിയ മുള വന്നു.
thottatthil puthiya mula vannu.
A new shoot came up in the garden.
All Malayalam words for “bamboo”
- മുള (mula) — Shoot, sprout, seedling, bamboo.
- കാര്മുകം (karmukam) — Bow, rainbow, bamboo, margosa.
- വംശം (vamsham) — Clan, family, race, caste, community, multitude, bamboo, reed, flute, a kind of musical drum.
- ഒട്ടല് (ottal) — Stickiness, shrinking, becoming lean, a kind of bamboo.
മുള is the everyday word for bamboo. വംശം means bamboo in classical usage but is far better known as clan or lineage, കാര്മുകം is primarily a bow, and ഒട്ടല് names only one particular kind of bamboo.
Common questions
What is bamboo in Malayalam?
Say മുള (mula), the common word for the plant and its cane.
Why does vamsham mean both bamboo and family?
The word's image is of something that grows in joined segments, one after another. A lineage was pictured the same way, so the family sense came to dominate.