papaw tree

1 7.9

A small tree that grows in eastern United States and has large edible creamy yellow fruit

noun
/ˈpæpɔː ˌtriː/

: árbol de papaya

I have a small tree in my backyard which I thought was a fig tree, but now I'm not so sure it could be a pawpaw tree.

Examples

I posted a picture on another page where I wrote about the pawpaw tree.

Blog text (7)
I used this recipe for Pawpaw bread when I thought I had a Pawpaw tree, and it works with the Feijoa fruit.

Blog text (7)
The pawpaw tree in my garden has beautiful oblong leaves and produces delicious fruit.
While hiking in the woods, we spotted a pawpaw tree with ripe fruit hanging from its branches.
He planted a pawpaw tree in his backyard, excited about the sweet fruit it would soon yield.

Synonyms

pawpaw

vspapaw tree

1 8.2

A small tree that produces a soft yellow fruit eaten fresh

is limited to a small eastern US tree with oblong leaves and large fruit

Asimina triloba

vspapaw tree

Specialized

9.6

A small tree from the eastern United States that makes sweet, soft fruit called pawpaw

is a common name for the same tree rather than the scientific label

Surface Forms

papaw tree singular

papaw trees plural

Morphology

papaw + tree

This is a straightforward noun–noun compound: if a learner knows 'papaw' as the fruit and 'tree' as a plant, they can infer it denotes the tree that bears papaw fruit. The modifier+tree naming pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Papaw tree may come from an old word people used for the fruit; the plant that makes the big, soft, sweet papaw was simply called by the fruit's name. So today, Papaw tree means 'the tree that makes papaw fruit'.