SC - guava

[TG]

<< If the guava made an early debut, it is probably recorded by Gonzales
Fernando de Oviedo y Valdez in his Historia general y natural de las
Indias, Islas y Tierra-Firme del Mar Oceano originally published in
Toledo in 1526. >> (Bear)

Georg Friederici, in his "Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch", gives several
quotes from this and other works of Oviedo y Valdes ("la guayaba, es muy
linda fruta y apetitosa") and from various other early sources from 1520
onwards. According to Friederici, the origin is with the "Insel-Aruaks,
Insel- u. Festland-Karaiben, Tupis", then the Spaniards spread the fruit
and the word from there in other places (specified in some detail on p.
283).

Thomas