Meanings
plural shipovas · alternative shipover
- A sweet edible fruit, a hybrid of the European pear (Pyrus communis) and the common whitebeam (Aria edulis, syn., Sorbus aria).
His latest book, “Landscaping With Fruit” (Storey, 2009), dives into the world of the little-known lingonberry, clove currant, maypop, shipova, hardy kiwi and other fruits that are easy to grow, he says, and as delicious as they are ornamental.
2009 May 21, Anne Raver, “From Novel Fruits, a Lush Landscape”, in New York Times
Origin
- Proto-Slavic*šipъ
- Englishshipova
Propagated into the US 1959 from Yugoslavia—1986 again from Macedonia as smokvarka / смокварка (smokvarka)—, which itself has only grafts descending from a single tree described 1834 in the Parisian Jardin du Roi, as the hybrid’s fruits are mostly sterile. Given that the Serbo-Croatian accent is imitated in the current pronunciation, we can be confident to say that this word is from the Serbo-Croatian descendant of Proto-Slavic *šipъ used itself or in derivatives to refer to rosaceous plants + *-ovъ (suffix used to form relative adjectives) + *-a (feminine ending)
More words from Proto-Slavic
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
shipova. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shipova
“shipova.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shipova. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shipova,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shipova.
Source: shipova on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.