Meaning
The papaya — a large tropical fruit with sweet, soft, orange flesh, eaten ripe as a breakfast or dessert. Green, unripe pawpaw is cooked in dishes and, famously, its sap and flesh are used to tenderise tough meat. 'Pawpaw' is the common Jamaican name for the papaya, grown easily in the yard on its tall, quick-bearing stalk, and both the ripe fruit and the green one have their place — the one sweet on the plate, the other a cook's helper and a folk remedy.
Examples
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Di ripe pawpaw sweet fi breakfast.
The ripe papaya is sweet for breakfast.
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Green pawpaw good fi tenderise di meat.
Green papaya is good for tenderising the meat.
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Wi have a pawpaw tree a di gate.
We have a papaya tree by the gate.
Origin
From an African and Caribbean name for the papaya; 'pawpaw' is used across the Caribbean and West Africa for the fruit.
How it’s used
Ripe pawpaw is a sweet fruit; green pawpaw is a cooking vegetable and a natural meat tenderiser. Not the same as the North American pawpaw tree.