果物

Literally “tree's thing”. Originally a compound of 木 (ku, “tree”, shift from ancient ko pronunciation) +‎ だ (da, possessive marker between two nouns, only found in a few compounds) +‎ 物 (mono, “thing”).^[1][2]

The medial da is also seen in 獣 (kedamono, “beast”, literally “hairy thing”). The kanji is jukujikun (熟字訓).

• (Tokyo) くだもの [kùdáꜜmònò] (Nakadaka – [2])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [kɯ̟da̠mo̞no̞]

果物(くだもの) • (kudamono) 

1. edible fruit that grows on trees or shrubs, such as oranges and apples, rather than those growing along the ground, such as strawberries and melons

• フルーツ (furūtsu)

• 果(か)実(じつ) (kajitsu): fruit (edible or otherwise)
• 実(み) (mi): a seed, a berry, a fruit, a nut
• 青(せい)果(か)物(ぶつ) (seikabutsu): garden stuff, greenstuff
• 八百屋(やおや) (yaoya): a greengrocer

/kwabut͡su/ → /kabut͡su/

Possibly from Middle Chinese compound 果物 (*kuɑ *miuət, literally “fruit thing”). Compare modern Mandarin 果物 reading guǒwù (rare), Cantonese gwo² mat⁶ (rare).

Rarely used in modern Japanese.

• IPA^(key): [ka̠bɯ̟t͡sɨ]

果(か)物(ぶつ) • (kabutsu) ^{←くわぶつ (kwabutu)?}

1. (rare) fruit

The kudamono reading is much more common in modern Japanese.