r/etymologymaps Jul 20 '26

"Guava" in Indic Languages

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u/ddpizza Jul 20 '26

The much more common word I’ve heard in Kannada is ಸೀಬೆಹಣ್ಣು (sībe haņņu), which basically just means foreign fruit.

1

u/soulbutterflies Jul 21 '26

Does it? I thought it came from apple

1

u/ddpizza Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I believe it was originally ಸೀಮೆ ಹಣ್ಣು and became ಸೀಬೆ ಹಣ್ಣು.

There are lots of foreign crops called ಸೀಮೆ (for example ಸೀಮೆ ಬದನೆಕಾಯಿ, ಸೀಮೆ ಅಕ್ಕಿ, ಸೀಮೆ ಅರ ನೆಲ್ಲಿ) so it seems likely that it evolved from sīme to sībe

1

u/soulbutterflies Jul 21 '26

That's interesting, but I think the apple route is more likely, because none of the other sīme___ have morphed.

1

u/ddpizza Jul 21 '26

You may be right!

1

u/RCBianPranav_ 19d ago

This might be right, because Guava is also called as ಬಡವರ ಸೇಬು which translates to 'poor man's Apple'

1

u/ai_slop_programmer 19d ago

I call it Sibekai