Bot. Also sour sop, soursop. [f. SOUR a. + SOP sb.1]
1. The fruit of the West Indian tree, Anona muricata.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 501. The Sower-sop, a pleasant fruit there, hath a flower with three leaves.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 570. Sweet Oranges and Lemmons, Plantans, Coco-Nuts, Sower-Sops, &c.
1703. Dampier, Voy., III. I. 67. The Sour-sop (as we call it) is a large Fruit as big as a Man’s Head,… and of a green Colour.
1740. New Hist. Jamaica, 51. Fruits grow in great Plenty,… Mamies, sour Sops, Papas,… and several Kind of Berries.
c. 1825. Choyce, Log of Jack Tar (1891), 22. We … got plenty and abundance of fruit, such as oranges, limes,… pears, soursops, &c.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 745. The Custard-apples, Sweetsops, and Soursops, of the East and West Indies, are furnished by various species of Anona.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, ii. It is the cousin of the prickly sour-sop.
2. The tree bearing this fruit.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. App., Soure-sop, or Sowre-sop, in botany, a distinct genus of plants, called by botanists guanabanus and anona.
1764. Grainger, Sugar-Cane, I. 598. A neighbouring dell, (Which nature to the Soursop had resign’d).
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Gard. (ed. 2), § 6732. The following are some of the most remarkable of the economical tropical plants…. Sour-sop (Annona muricata).
1880. Bessey, Botany, 561. A. squamosa, Sweet Sop, and A. muricata, Sour sop,… produce edible fruits.
3. attrib., as sour-sop bird, tree.
1696. Sloane, Catal. Plantarum Jamaica, 204. The Sowre-sop Tree.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 255. The Soursop Tree. This … is one of the most common plants in every Savanna.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 54/2. The following spirited sketch … of the appearance of the sour sop tree.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., s.v., Sour-sop bird,… tanager (Calliste versicolor).
