papaw

The word entered English from an Algonquian language — likely Powhatan or a related Virginia Algonquian — by the early 1600s. The earliest English references to 'papaw' describe the Asimina triloba, the temperate tree that grows wild throughout the eastern United States and produces a large, custard-flavored fruit. Indigenous peoples of the eastern woodlands had cultivated and eaten pawpaws for thousands of years before European contact.

The confusion with papaya — the tropical Carica papaya — began almost immediately. Both were called papaw or pawpaw by English writers. Spanish and Portuguese explorers had already borrowed the word from Arawak languages of the Caribbean and applied it to the tropical fruit. The result was centuries of botanical conflation: the same word for two unrelated plants on two different continents.

Lewis and Clark encountered pawpaws in 1804 and 1806, noting them as a significant food source. Their journals record members of the expedition eating pawpaws along the Missouri River. George Washington reportedly grew pawpaws at Mount Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson planted them at Monticello. The fruit was a common food in early American history.

Pawpaw fell out of commercial cultivation in the 20th century partly because the fruit is difficult to ship — it bruises easily and has a shelf life of only a few days. It survives in wild patches along river bottoms throughout the eastern United States and in a small but devoted subculture of growers and enthusiasts. The annual Ohio Pawpaw Festival, begun in 1999, celebrates the fruit's revival.