Dictionary

kavika en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kəˈviːkə/

Etymology

Presumably borrowed from Fijian kavika, from Proto-Oceanic *kapika. First attested in 1862.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:especially Fiji) The Malay apple, Syzygium malaccense.
   • Although of no effect so far as the course of the small outbreak at Nacaugai is concerned it is necessary to add here that the prompt destruction of kavika trees over much of the neighbouring land on Nagasau estate was in all probability an important measure of control and responsible for the freedom from scale of Nagasau estate at the time when Mua was badly attacked. 1935 March 14, T[homas] H. C. Taylor, “The Campaign against Aspidiotus destructor, Sign., in Fiji”, in Bulletin of Entomological Research, volume 26, Imperial Institute of Entomology, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 96:
   • The earthworm, the koraning cicadas, the sun now the pallor of kavika, the starapples ripening against an olive sky. 1997 [1994], Sudesh Mishra, “Lila”, in Wasafiri, volume 12, number 25, Routledge, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 37:
   • In their idea, there is scarcely a finer tree than the Kavika; and when in their fairy tales the imagination runs riot, and describes all that is lovely and beautiful, the Kavika is rarely omitted. 1862, Berthold Seemann, Viti: an account of a government mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands, in the years 1860-61, Cambridge: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 318:

Forms