Variant of KAVA; cf. AVA.
1804. Ann. Rev., II. 196/1. The eyes of the great yavva drinkers are much blood shot.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), II. 641. It [sc. Bucnemia tropica] is also indigenous to the Polynesian isles, where it takes the name of yava-skin, as being supposed to originate from drinking the heating beverage called yava.
