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Re: [GWL]: A good question
Nan Sterman wrote:
> My 10 year old just asked me a good question about guava (which are
> finally ripe by the way) -- if one fruit is called guava, would the
> plural be called "guavae?" (he pronounced it "guavay")
Nan,
Guavae would be the plural if guava were a first declension Latin noun. But
guava isn't Latin. It is an Anglicised version of the Spanish name for the
fruit, which is "guayaba", which in turn is a Spanish rendition of the
original Caribbean (Arawak) Indian word. Since guava is English, the plural
is guavas.
Incidentally, the botanical name for the genus is psidium, which is the
ancient Greek name for "pomegranate". The practice of linguistic borrowing
of plant names is a very old one.
John MacGregor
jonivy@earthlink.net
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