almond: [13] The l in almond is a comparatively recent addition; its immediate source, Latin amandula, did not have one (and nor, correspondingly, do French amande, Portuguese amendoa, Italian mandola, or German mandel). But the relative frequency of the prefix al- in Latin-derived words seems to have prompted its grafting on to amandula in its passage from Latin to Old French, giving a hypothetical *almandle and eventually al(e)mande.
French in due course dropped the l, but English acquired the word when it was still there. Going further back in time, the source of amandula was Latin amygdula, of which it was an alteration, and amygdula in turn was borrowed from the Greek word for ‘almond’, amygdálē. The Latin and Greek forms have been reborrowed into English at a much later date in various scientific terms: amygdala, for instance, an almond-shaped mass of nerve tissue in the brain; amygdalin, a glucoside found in bitter almonds; and amygdaloid, a rock with almondshaped cavities.
c. 1300, from Old French almande, amande, from Vulgar Latin *amendla, *amandula, from Latin amygdala (plural), from Greek amygdalos "an almond tree," which is of unknown origin, perhaps a Semitic word. Altered in Medieval Latin by influence of amandus "loveable," and acquiring in French an excrescent -l- perhaps from Spanish almendra "almond," which got it via confusion with the Arabic definite article al-, which formed the beginnings of many Spanish words. Applied to eyes shaped like almonds, especially of certain Asiatic peoples, from 1870.
双语例句
1. On the left was a plantation of almond trees.
左边是一个杏树园。
来自柯林斯例句
2. It was springtime and the slopes were ablaze with almond blossoms.
时当春季,怒放的扁桃花使那片山坡鲜红似火.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. In Castel Molo, high above Taormina, you can sample the famous almond wine made there.
在陶尔米纳山高处的莫罗堡，你可以品尝那里酿造的著名的杏仁酒。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Further up the river, the vineyards start to thin out and the orange groves and almond trees take over.
继续溯流而上，葡萄园开始淡去，柑橘园和杏树多了起来。
来自柯林斯例句
5. " And knock them little almond trees in the back.
