weleti

Fijian

Etymology

From the ship General Wellesley named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, which brought papayas from Penang and landed in Vanua Levu on October 1808 to obtain local sandalwood there. Cognate with Samoan ʻesi and Tongan lesi.

Noun

weleti

1. papaya.

   Synonyms: maoli, uto

Derived terms

• leweti (by metathesis)

Descendants

• Samoan: ʻesi
• Tongan: lesi

References

• Gatty, Ronald (2009) “weleti”, in Fijian-English Dictionary, Suva, Fiji: Ronald Gatty, →ISBN, page 322
• Langdon, Robert (1989 April) “The Secret History of the Papaw in the South Pacific: An Essay in Reconstruction”, in The Journal of Pacific History‎^[1], volume 24, number 1, pages 3-20