Annonas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tropical fruit with a spiny green rind and soft, sweet interior commonly found in warm climates ; a genus of plants in the custard apple family known for producing edible, aromatic fruit ; a term occasionally used to describe a variety of sweet, pulpy fruits native to the Americas
2. A type of fruit characterized by its bumpy outer skin and creamy flesh consumed fresh or in desserts ; a collective name for several species within a botanical genus that thrive in tropical environments ; an edible tropical fruit valued for its unique flavor and nutritional benefits
3. An edible, tropical fruit with a distinctive rough exterior and fragrant flesh ; a member of a botanical genus encompassing multiple fruit-bearing species native to tropical regions ; a sweet fruit used in various culinary applications and traditional dishes in warm countries

Etymology: "Annonas" is simply the plural of "annona", the name for a genus of tropical trees whose fruits include the custard apple, cherimoya and sweetsop. The singular "annona" came into English from the scientific Latin name of the genus, Annona, which Linnaeus and other botanists used for these trees. The name is itself a borrowing from the Taíno language of the Caribbean, which is where the fruit's name first came from before botanists adopted it. The Latin name Annona was then applied to the whole genus, so the English word follows the botanical usage rather than the everyday names for individual fruits. That explains the plural: "annonas" refers to several species within that genus, each bearing its own fruit.

Synonyms: custard apples, soursops, cherimoyas, pawpaws