Meaning
A small round green fruit that grows in tight bunches on a large tree, with a tight skin you crack open with your teeth to reach the single large seed wrapped in a sweet-tart, salmon-coloured pulp that you suck off. Guinep comes in season in summer, sold in bunches by roadside vendors, and eating it — cracking, sucking, and spitting the seed — is a messy, sociable childhood pleasure, though the pulp can stain clothes badly.
Examples
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Buy a bunch a guinep from di roadside.
Buy a bunch of guineps from the roadside.
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Crack di guinep an suck off di sweet.
Crack the guinep and suck off the sweet pulp.
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Guinep stain nuh come out yuh clothes.
Guinep stains don't come out of your clothes.
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Wi climb di tree fi pick genip.
We climbed the tree to pick guinep.
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Genip juice stain up mi shirt.
Guinep juice stained my shirt.
Origin
From a Spanish/Taíno source ('genip'/'quenepa'); a small sweet-tart summer fruit. See Hog plum, June plum.
How it’s used
A small round green fruit sucked off a big seed; a summer roadside treat. See Hog plum, June plum.