dragon fruit

See also: dragonfruit

English

dragon fruit on a market stall in Taiwan

Alternative forms

• dragonfruit

Etymology

From dragon +‎ fruit; most likely a calque or literal translation of a term in a Southeast Asian language (compare Chinese 火龍果／火龙果 (huǒlóngguǒ, literally “fiery dragon fruit”). Initial English texts cite Vietnamese thanh long; however, this was constructed differently, being a Sino-Vietnamese term for "Azure Dragon" (青龍) re-used to reference the green, "unripe" color of the fruit. First attributed in 1963.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹæɡ.ən ˌfɹuːt/

Noun

dragon fruit (plural dragon fruits)

1. The fruit of certain cacti of the genus (Stenocereus (syn. Hylocereus) spp.), cultivated in Southeast Asia and Central and South America, having cerise-pink- or yellow-coloured skin and a white or pink sweet fleshy interior with black seeds.

Synonyms

• (fruit of certain cacti): pitaya, strawberry pear

Descendants

• → Dutch: drakenvrucht (calque)
• → Thai: แก้วมังกร (gɛ̂ɛo-mang-gɔɔn) (calque)

Translations

fruit

• Afrikaans: draakvrug, pitaja
• Arabic: فَاكِهَة تِنِّين f (fākihat tinnīn)
• Bengali: পিতায়া (pitaẏa)
• Bulgarian: пита́я (bg) f (pitája)
• Burmese: နဂါးမောက် (na.ga:mauk), နဂါးမောက်သီး (na.ga:mauksi:)
• Central Huasteca Nahuatl: chacha
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 火龍果／火龙果 (fo² lung⁴ gwo²)

  Hakka: 火龍果／火龙果 (fó-liùng-kó)

  Hokkien: 火龍果／火龙果 (hóe-liông-kó, hé-liông-kó)

  Mandarin: 火龍果／火龙果 (zh) (huǒlóngguǒ), 龍珠果／龙珠果 (zh) (lóngzhūguǒ)

• Dutch: drakenvrucht f, pitaya m
• Esperanto: drakofrukto
• Finnish: pitahaya (fi), pitaya
• French: fruit du dragon (fr) m, pitaya (fr) m or f, pitahaya (fr) m or f
• Galician: pitaia (gl) f
• German: Drachenfrucht (de) f, Pitahaya (de) f, Pitaya f
• Greek: φρούτο του δράκου n (froúto tou drákou)
• Gujarati: ડ્રેગનફ્રુટ (ḍregnaphruṭ), પિતાયા (pitāyā)
• Hungarian: pitaja
• Indonesian: buah naga
• Irish: dragantoradh m
• Italian: frutto del drago m
• Japanese: ドラゴンフルーツ (doragonfurūtsu), ピタヤ (pitaya)
• Javanese: woh naga
• Kannada: ಡ್ರ್ಯಾಗನ್ ಹಣ್ಣು (ḍryāgan haṇṇu)
• Kazakh: питахайя (pitaxaiä)
• Khmer: ស្រការនាគ (srɑɑkaaniək), ស្រកានាគ (srɑkaa niək)
• Korean: 용과 (yonggwa), 피타야 (pitaya)
• Lak: питайя (pitayaˤ)
• Lao: ໝາກມັງກອນ (māk mang kǭn)
• Latvian: pitaija f
• Lü: ᦶᦂᧁᧉᦙᧂᦂᦸᧃ (k̇aew²mangk̇oan)
• Malay: buah naga (ms)
• Malayalam: ഡ്രാഗൺ പഴം (ḍrāgaṇ paḻaṁ)
• Mari:

  Western Mari: питайя (pitaja)

• Mongolian: луу жимс (luu žims)
• Nahuatl:

  Central Huasteca Nahuatl: chacha

  Classical Nahuatl: tzaponochtli

  Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: chacha

  Western Huasteca Nahuatl: chacha

• Polish: pitaja (pl) f, smoczy owoc (pl) m
• Portuguese: pitaia f, rainha-da-noite f, dama-da-noite (pt) f
• Russian: пита́йя (ru) f (pitájja), пита́хайя (ru) f (pitáxajja), питаха́йя (ru) f (pitaxájja), драко́ний фрукт m (drakónij frukt)
• Slovene: pitaja f
• Spanish: fruta del dragón f, pitahaya (es) f
• Sundanese: buah naga
• Swedish: drakfrukt (sv), pitaya, pitahaya (sv)
• Tagalog: pitaya
• Tamil: டிராகன் பழம் (ṭirākaṉ paḻam)
• Telugu: పిటాయ (piṭāya)
• Thai: แก้วมังกร (gɛ̂ɛo-mang-gɔɔn)
• Tulu: ಡ್ರ್ಯಾಗನ್ ಪರ್‌ಂದ್ (ḍryāganŭ par‌ndŭ)
• Turkish: pitaya
• Udmurt: питайя (pitaja)
• Ukrainian: пітахайя f (pitaxajja), пітайя f (pitajja)
• Vietnamese: thanh long (vi)
• Wastek: tsatsaʼ
• Yucatec Maya: woob
• Zapotec:

  Isthmus Zapotec: bidxí

Further reading

• dragon fruit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Hylocereus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies