西瓜

So named for its introduction from the west of China. The New History of the Five Dynasties (11th century) records that the Khitans obtained it from the Huige people:

遂入平川，多草木，始食西瓜，云契丹破回紇得此種，大如中國冬瓜而味甘。 [MSC, trad.]

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遂入平川，多草木，始食西瓜，云契丹破回纥得此种，大如中国冬瓜而味甘。 [MSC, simp.]

From: 新五代史 (New History of the Five Dynasties), 11th c.

Suì rù píngchuān, duō cǎomù, shǐ shí xīguā, yún qìdān pò huíhé dé cǐ zhǒng, dà rú zhōngguó dōngguā ér wèi gān. [Pinyin]

Then entered the plains, with much grass and trees, and ate watermelon for the first time. It is said that the Khitans obtained this species after defeating the Huige; it was as large as a Chinese winter melon and sweet in taste.

西瓜

1. watermelon (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 c)

• 寒瓜 (hánguā) (archaic, used during Yuan and Ming times)

Others:

• → Brunei Malay: sikoi
• → English: xigua
• → Mongolian: шийгуа (šiigua)
• → Tagalog: sikoy
• → Zhuang: sihgvah, sae'gva

• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long]; 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu]; 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying]; 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019), “412 西瓜”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 331.

From Middle Chinese 西瓜 (MC sej kwae, literally “west melon”). Compare modern Mandarin 西瓜 (xīguā, “watermelon”). Sui is the 唐音 (tōon) of 西.^[1][2][3][4] There is an alternative spelling 水瓜,^{[1][3][2][4][5]} which may be seen as both ateji and a calque of English watermelon.

Various Japanese references indicate that the fruit was imported from China in the early Edo period in the 1600s.^[1][3][2] However, the word is first attested in Japanese in a text from the 1360s, suggesting that the fruit was originally imported earlier, but did not become more widely known until the 1600s.^[4]

• (Tokyo) すいか [sùíká] (Heiban – [0])^[2][5][6]
• IPA^(key): [sɨika̠]

西(すい)瓜(か) or 西瓜(スイカ) • (suika) ^{←すいくわ (suikwa)?}

1. watermelon

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as スイカ (suika).

• → Tsou: suika

• “^△西^▲瓜”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[3] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026

西瓜 • (seogwa) (hangeul 서과)

1. hanja form^? of 서과 (“watermelon”)

• IPA^(key): /ɕiːkʷa/

西(しー)瓜(くゎ) or 西瓜(シークヮ) (shīkwa) 

1. watermelon

   Synonym: 広東瓜 (kwantuui)

• “シークヮ” in Okinawa Center of Language Study, Shuri-Naha Dialect Dictionary (archived; reopens 2024).