guayaba

English

Alternative forms

• guayava
• guayabo (obsolete)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Taíno *wayababor.

Spanish guayababor.

English guayaba

From Spanish guayaba, from Taíno *wayaba. Doublet of guava, by which it has been largely displaced.

Noun

guayaba (plural guayabas)

1. (uncommon) The guava (tree or fruit).

Spanish

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ɡwaˈʝaba/ [ɡwaˈʝa.β̞a]

• IPA^(key): (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay) /ɡwaˈʝaba/ [ɡwaˈʝa.β̞a]
• IPA^(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /ɡwaˈʃaba/ [ɡwaˈʃa.β̞a]
• IPA^(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /ɡwaˈʒaba/ [ɡwaˈʒa.β̞a]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aba
• Syllabification: gua‧ya‧ba

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Taíno *wayaba.

Noun

guayaba f (plural guayabas)

1. guava (fruit)

Derived terms

• (El Salvador) guayabear
• guayabera
• guayabero
• guayabo

 

Descendants

• → Bikol Central: bayawas
• → Belizean Creole: gwaava
• → Cebuano: bayabas, biyabas
• → English: guava
• → French: goyave
• → Hiligaynon: bayabas
• → Ilocano: bayabas, bayabat
• → Masbatenyo: bayabas
• → Rakhine: ဂိုယံသီး
• → Tagalog: bayabas, tayabas
• → Tiruray: bayabas

Etymology 2

Verb

guayaba

1. first/third-person singular imperfect indicative of guayar

Further reading

• “guayaba”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10