For most of my early Guyana life, suckers were merely the plain, pointed side shoots that perennially popped up in a clump around the pseudostem of the banana and plantain trees which towered in many crowded backyards, providing cool green shade and sweet, filling provision. Botanically a berry, the herbaceous plant reproduces at least two types, the sword suckers, characterized by narrow leaves and a large rhizome, and water suckers which are the opposite with broad stalks and a small base having a weak link to the parent and therefore unlikely to thrive as strong specimens.
Later I would listen to my incredulous brother use the singular word in a rhetorical question, alluding to the slang term for a person who is easily deceived. Dating back to 1836 American English and perhaps even earlier to 1753, it is a colloquial reference to a breast feeding baby, and the fish called a sucker which
