Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

genipap

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: geni-pap
IPA

12

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

2

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The North and South American tree Genipa americana of the family Rubiaceae.

noun

The fruit of this tree, oval in shape, as large as a small orange, of a pale greenish color, and with dark purple juice, traditionally used as a colorant.

Example Sentences

"Genipap is wild and cultivated in many parts of the Amazon, especially on floodplains, from the river's mouth to the Andean foothills in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia."
"Unripe genipap fruits are widely used by indigenous tribes to extract the blue pigment, exposing the inside part of the fruit to the air."

Etymology

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese jenipapo, from Old Tupi îanypaba. The Tupi meaning of the word is variously given as yandi-pawa or yandi-pab (“fruit for painting”), yandi-ibá-pab (“fruit of the extremities for painting”), and without citation or explanation, “breast of an old woman”.

Word Breakdown

Root: îanypaba

Inflected Forms

genipaps (plural)

Synonyms

genip genipap fruit

Questions

What does genipap mean?: The North and South American tree Genipa americana of the family Rubiaceae.
Where does genipap come from?: Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese jenipapo, from Old Tupi îanypaba. The Tupi meaning of the word is variously given as yandi-pawa or yandi-pab (“fruit for painting”), yandi-ibá-pab (“fruit of the extremities for painting”), and without citation or explanation, “breast of an old woman”.

How to pronounce genipap

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