tomato = swelling fruit
^tomate (Spanish)
^
tomatl (Nahuati) 'swelling fruit'
The tomato comes from the Aztec's word tomama 'to swell'. It becomes tomatl, a swelling fruit, and then tomate in Spanish. The Aztec's language, Nahuati, also gives us our words avocado, cocoa and chocolate. Tomatl can also be spelled xitomatl.
The Spanish explorer Cortez conquered the Aztecs in Mexico (1521). The tomato was brought to Europe from the Americas sometime in the 1500s.
The origin of the Italian word pomodoro is different. One thread explains that many of these early tomatoes were yellow, and so we get the name pomi d'oro 'apple of gold'. The first European reference comes from an Italian herbalist (1544) who called them mala aurea 'golden apples' and remarked that that they start green and ripen to yellow.
Other threads explain this Italian word as 'love apple' from pomi + adorare, 'to adore'. In French it was similarly called pomme d'amour and the English originally referred to by this French name before adopting tomato. was called Or pomi + de Moro 'of the Moors', from the Moors of Spain or North Africa.
Related Words
- avocado, chocolate and cocoa also come from Nahauti.
- potato. The ending ‘o’ sound in tomato was probably added as an imitation of potato
- pomi or 'apple' from the Italian word pomodoro is similar to the French pomme for 'apple'. Pomme is both cases means 'fruit' more generally, as seen in words like the French word for potato pomme de terre 'fruit of the earth'.
Translated
- tomate French
- pomodoro Italian
- tomate Spanish
- tomate German
References:
- OED
- Sam Dean, Bon Appetit