Meanings
plural genipaps
- The North and South American tree Genipa americana of the family Rubiaceae.
Genipap is wild and cultivated in many parts of the Amazon, especially on floodplains, from the river's mouth to the Andean foothills in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
2023, Nigel Smith, Amazon Fruits: An Ethnobotanical Journey, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 1109 - The fruit of this tree, oval in shape, as large as a small orange, of a pale greenish color, and with dark purple juice, traditionally used as a colorant.
Unripe genipap fruits are widely used by indigenous tribes to extract the blue pigment, exposing the inside part of the fruit to the air.
2019, Luzia Valentina Modolo, Mary Ann Foglio, editors, Brazilian Medicinal Plants, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 190Synonyms: genip
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe fruit of this tree, oval in shape, as large as a small orange, of a pale greenish color, and with dark purple juice, traditionally used as a colorant.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna succulent orange-sized tropical fruit with a thick rind
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Tupiîanypaba
- Brazilian Portuguesejenipapo
- Englishgenipap
Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese jenipapo, from Old Tupi îanypaba. The Tupi meaning of the word is variously given as yandi-pawa or yandi-pab (“fruit for painting”), yandi-ibá-pab (“fruit of the extremities for painting”), and without citation or explanation, “breast of an old woman”.
More words from Brazilian Portuguese, Old Tupi
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Portuguese jenipapo
- jenipapoTranslations
Spanish huito, ñandipá
- huitoTranslations
- ñandipáTranslations
- jaguaTranslations
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
genipap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/genipap
“genipap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/genipap. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “genipap,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/genipap.
Source: genipap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.