quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- citrus




- citrus: [19] Latin citrus signified the ‘citron’, a tree (Citrus medica) of Asian origin with a lemon-like fruit which was the earliest of the citrus fruits to become known in the West. Like the fruit itself, the name is presumably of Eastern origin – perhaps from a non-Indo- European language from around the eastern end of the Himalayas. Citron is a French derivative of citrus, coined on the model of French limon ‘lemon’; it was borrowed into English in the 16th century.
- lime




- lime: English has three distinct words lime, of which by far the oldest is lime the ‘chalky substance’ [OE]. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *līm- (shared also by German leim, Dutch lijm, and Swedish limma), a variant of which also produced English loam [OE]. Lime the ‘citrus fruit’ [17] comes via French lime and Provençal limo from Arabic līmah ‘citrus fruit’, which was also the source of English lemon [14].
And lime the ‘tree’ [17] is an alteration of an earlier line, a variant of lind ‘lime tree’ (the closely related linden was acquired in the 16th century, from German lindenbaum or early modern Dutch lindenboom ‘lime tree’).
=> loam; lemon; linden - marmalade




- marmalade: [16] The word marmalade originally denoted ‘quince jam’. It comes via French from Portuguese marmelada, a derivative of marmelo ‘quince’. And marmelo goes back via Latin melimēlum to Greek melímēlon, a term meaning literally ‘honeyapple’ which was applied to the fruit of an apple tree grafted on to a quince (the second element, melon ‘apple’, is the source of English melon). Not until the 17th century was marmalade used for a preserve made from citrus fruits.
=> melon - shaddock




- shaddock: [17] The shaddock is a large citrus fruit, similar to a grapefruit. Its name commemorates one Captain Shaddock, the commander of an East India Company ship who at some point in the late 17th century stopped off at Jamaica en route from the East Indies to England and left some seeds of the shaddock tree there.
- ugly




- ugly: [13] Ugly originally meant ‘horrible, frightening’; ‘offensive to the sight’ is a secondary development, first recorded in the 14th century. The word was borrowed from Old Norse uggligr, a derivative of the verb ugga ‘fear’. In the early 1930s it was applied, in the altered spelling ugli, to a new sort of citrus fruit, a hybrid of the grapefruit and the tangerine; the reference is to the fruit’s unprepossessing knobbly skin.
- citrus (adj.)




- 1825, from Modern Latin genus name, from Latin citrus "citron tree," name of an African tree with aromatic wood and lemon-like fruit, the first citrus fruit to become available in the West. The name, like the tree, is probably of Asiatic origin [OED]. But Klein traces it to Greek kedros "cedar," and writes that the change of dr into tr shows that the word came from Greek into Latin through the medium of the Etruscans. As a noun, "tree of the genus Citrus," from 1885.
- lemon (n.1)




- type of citrus fruit, c. 1400, lymon, from Old French limon "citrus fruit" (12c.), via Provençal or Italian from Arabic laimun, from Persian limu(n), generic terms for citrus fruits (compare lime (n.2)); cognate with Sanskrit nimbu "the lime." Slang meaning "a Quaalude" is 1960s, from Lemmon, name of a pharmaceutical company that once manufactured the drug.
- lime (n.2)




- greenish-yellow citrus fruit, 1630s, probably via Spanish lima, from Arabic limah "citrus fruit," from Persian limun "lemon" (see lemon (n.1)). Related: Limeade (1892), with ending as in lemonade.
- lime (n.3)




- "linden tree," 1620s, earlier line (c. 1500), from Middle English lynde (early 14c.), from Old English lind "lime tree" (see linden). Klein suggests the change of -n- to -m- probably began in compounds whose second element began in a labial (such as line-bark, line-bast). An ornamental European tree unrelated to the tree that produces the citrus fruit.
- marmalade (n.)




- late 15c., from Middle French marmelade, from Portuguese marmelada "quince jelly, marmalade," from marmelo "quince," by dissimilation from Latin melimelum "sweet apple," originally "fruit of an apple tree grafted onto quince," from Greek melimelon, from meli "honey" (see Melissa) + melon "apple" (see malic). Extended 17c. to "preserve made from citrus fruit."
- ascorbic acid




- "A vitamin found particularly in citrus fruits and green vegetables. It is essential in maintaining healthy connective tissue, and is also thought to act as an antioxidant. Severe deficiency causes scurvy", 1930s: from a-1 'without' + medieval Latin scorbutus 'scurvy' + -ic.
- ortanique




- "A citrus fruit which is a cross between an orange and a tangerine, developed in Jamaica in the 1920s", Blend of orange, tangerine, and unique.