sapodilla
/ˌsapəˈdɪlə
/noun
1A large evergreen tropical American tree which has edible fruit and hard durable wood and yields chicle.
- Manilkara zapota, family Sapotaceae.
- The house, erected across four thick branches of a towering sapodilla tree is hidden among its lush, green leaves.
- The genus Madhuca belongs to the same family as the sapodilla, and some species have edible, although poor, fruits.
1.1 (also sapodilla plum) The sweet brownish bristly fruit of the sapodilla.If you are growing custard apples, bananas, sapodillas and carambolas, they could all do with a dressing of citrus and fruit tree fertiliser spread evenly around under the leaf canopy....
- There are zapotes, the sapodilla plums from which the Aztecs and others derived their word for the Zapotecs (a people properly known, in their own language, as the ‘Biniza’).
- Firm sapodillas are unripe and guarantee a nasty, tongue-curling experience for the eater due to a high tannin content.
Origin
Late 17th century: from Spanish zapotillo, diminutive of zapote, from Nahuatl tzápotl.