blade apple

9.9

A small yellow or orange fruit from a cactus used to make jam and desserts

noun

: manzana de hoja

The chef used fresh blade apples to make a tart and flavorful jam.

Examples

The local market had stalls selling preserves made from blade apple.
I bought a blade apple at the market.
During our trip to the Caribbean, we tasted a dessert made with blade apple.
Have you ever tried a blade apple?
During our trip to the Caribbean, we tasted a dessert made with blade apple.
The chef used fresh blade apples to make a tart and flavorful jam.
The local market had stalls selling preserves made from blade apple.

Synonyms

Barbados gooseberry

vsblade apple

9.6

A small orange-yellow berry used to make jams and desserts

focuses on the edible fruit itself rather than the plant that makes it

Surface Forms

blade apple singular

blade apples plural

Morphology

blade + apple

The noun compound signals a fruit because 'apple' clearly denotes a fruit, so a B1 learner would likely infer that 'blade apple' is some kind of fruit. However, the specific referent (the Barbados gooseberry cactus fruit, its color and culinary uses) cannot be derived from 'blade' (leaf/flat area) and 'apple', so the exact meaning is not predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Blade apple may come from the paper-like husk that wraps the small round fruit, which can look like a thin blade or little leaf around an apple. So, that picture of a tiny 'apple' wrapped by a thin 'blade' helps explain why the name now means the yellow-orange fruit used in jams and desserts.