Is there a generic term for palm trees in Thai?

[Oxx]

Title says it all.

[DMC1]

ต้นปาล์ม - dtôn-bpaam

Any help?

[Oxx]

26 minutes ago, DMC1 said:

ต้นปาล์ม - dtôn-bpaam

Any help?

 

Easy when you know it!

 

Thanks.

[Oxx]

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

Easy when you know it.

 

I spoke too soon.  A forum member has sent me a private message with the RID entry for ปาล์ม.  ปาล์ม only refers to non-native, imported palm species.  Surely there must be a generic term for Thai palms.

[Mole]

In English "palm" can be used for any tree with similar appearance.

 

But there is no such thing in Thai language. Even though trees of the betel nut, coconut or toddy are all called "palm" in English, in Thai language, we have different names for them.

 

For example ต้นมะพร้าว would mean only the coconut palm and ต้นตาล is the toddy palm while ต้นหมาก is the betel nut palm. While the ต้นปาล์ม would mean only the oil palms.

 

However, for example this wikipedia article.

https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/ปาล์ม_(พืช)

The word ปาล์ม is used to refer to palm trees in general.

So depending on context, you could for instance say มันเป็นต้นปาล์มชนิดหนึ่ง to refer to a palm tree.

 

For example ต้นมะพร้าวเป็นต้นปาล์มชนิดหนึ่ง

 

In other words, you cannot just say ต้นปาล์ม because people would think of the oil palms. You would probably have to say ต้นปาล์มชนิดหนึ่ง to refer to some palm not native to Thailand.
For species native to Thailand, one would use the native Thai name for it and not ปาล์ม.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Mole