currant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English coraunce, also corauntz, a reduction made before 1500^[2] of the phrase raisins of Corauntz,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman raisins de Corauntz (“grapes of Corinth”),^{[2][4][3][5][6]} which stands for Old French raisins de Corinthe.^[2][3][4] The Anglo-Norman name of the city is Corauntz,^[7][8] recorded in the Anglo-Norman Dictionary among the spellings of Corinthe, which from the early 12th century meant both the city and the currant.^[9] It goes back to Latin Corinthus, from Ancient Greek Κόρινθος (Kórinthos), the Greek city of Corinth,^{[10][8][7][11]} from which the dried grapes were first exported.^{[3][4][12][13]} Barnhart gives the Middle English forms raysyn of Curans (1391), raysyn of coraunce (probably about 1425) and reyssin of Corent (1432–33).^[8] The final consonant was taken for a plural ending,^[8][6] and a new singular was made from it: Barnhart records currante in 1540,^[8] and Ayto says the singular was at first coren and then, in the 17th century, currant.^[12] Wiktionary compares Dutch krent.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The small dried fruit of a dwarf seedless grape from the Levant, used in cooking: about 1390, in the cookery book Form of Cury, as raisins of Corauntz.^[2] Barnhart dates Raysyn of Curans to 1391,^[8] Etymonline the phrase to the late 14th century and the shortened word to about 1500.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages Corinth exported small dried grapes of high quality, and the name of the port became the name of the fruit.^[12][14] In the late 16th century the word passed to the berries of the shrubs of the genus Ribes, the red and black currants, then lately brought into English gardens:^[2][6][12] Ayto and Hoad explain it by the mistaken belief that the dried fruit was made from them,^[12][3] Etymonline and Weekley by the likeness of the berries and their clusters to the raisins.^[6][15] Lyte (1578) called the garden plant the "beyond sea gooseberry" or "bastard currant".^[15] The name was later applied to the shrubs themselves (1665) and to other plants with similar fruit in America and Australia.^[2][6] Some 16th-century herbalists restored the spelling Corinth, which a few writers kept up into the 19th century,^[2] and Johnson (1755) still said the dried fruit was properly written corinth.^[16] The forms corans, currence and currans appear in literature to about 1750,^[2] and dialects in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England said curran, curn or corn.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – raisins of Corauntz, the dried fruit of a seedless grape.^[2]
• c. 1503 – the shortened corauntz, currants, in Arnold's Chronicle.^[2]
• 1540 – the singular currante.^[8]
• 1578 – the berry of the red or black currant, in Lyte's translation of Dodoens's herbal.^[2][15]
• 1665 – the shrub that bears these berries.^[2]
• 1866 – other shrubs with fruit like that of Ribes.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small dried seedless grape of the Mediterranean region, used in baking and cooking: She added a handful of currants to the scone dough.^[18][7][2]
2. The small, sour berry of several shrubs of the genus Ribes, such as the redcurrant and the blackcurrant, used mainly for jams and jellies.^[18][7][2]
3. A shrub that bears such berries.^[18][2]
4. Any of various other shrubs with fruit resembling these berries.^[2]

Word family

• golden currant
• red currant
• currant tomato

Related words

• Corinthian
• raisin
• current

Usage notes

Dictionary.com notes that currant and current are easily confused.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins