peach = Persian fruit
^pesche (Old French)
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persica (Latin) peach or peach tree
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malum Persicum (Latin) Persian apple
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Persikon malon (Greek) Persian apple
Peach comes via French pesche from the Latin persica and prior to that malum Persicum Persian apple. Malum means both apple and fruit more generically, so 'Persian fruit' is an equally likely meaning (see apple or melon). The Latin name is a translation of the same Greek term Persikon malon.
Interestingly, it seems that Persikos in ancient Greek could mean both 'Persian' or 'the peach'. The peach tree is native to China but to came via Persia to Europe.
Malum cotoneum is the Latin name for the quince fruit. It comes from the Greek kudonion melon or 'apple of Cydonia'. Cydonia was the name for modern Chania in Crete, where the Greeks cultivated the fruit. From Latin in becomes melocotón in modern Spanish, mela cotogna in Italian and a more shortened quoyn in French and quince in English and quitte in German.
Related Words
- apple or melon
- marmalade
Translated
- pêche French
- pesca Italian
- durazno Spanish
- pfirsich German
References:
- OED