pea

Etymology

It is a back-formation from English pease, which was taken to be a plural.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Pease was a singular or collective noun, like wheat or corn, but its final s sound was mistaken for the plural ending, and a new singular pea was made from it.^[4][7][8] Pease is from Middle English pese, plural pesen,^[9][4][7] from Old English pise (West Saxon), piose (Mercian),^[4][7][5] from Late Latin pisa, a variant of Latin pīsum,^[2][3][4][7] probably a loan from Ancient Greek πίσον (píson), also πίσος (písos),^[4][2][10] a word of unknown origin.^[7][4] The OED allows that the Latin word may instead be a parallel loan from another language.^[2] Klein suggests a Thracian or Phrygian source.^[4] The Latin word also gave French pois and Italian pisello,^[8] and Anglo-Norman peis reinforced the English word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The round green seed of the plant Pisum sativum, eaten as a vegetable: 1666, in Robert Boyle.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Earlier the plural form peaes appears in Beaumont and Fletcher's A King and No King (1611).^[7] After the mid 17th century the plural peas could no longer be told apart from the plural of the new word, and pease mostly fell out of standard English;^[2] it survives in pease pudding.^[8][2] Ayto compares it to dice, a plural that became a singular, while Klein and Weekley list cherry among similar back-formations.^[8][11][12] The word was soon used of the plant itself (1683)^[2] and of other leguminous plants, especially in the southern United States and the Caribbean.^[4][2] From its size it named small things: fish roe (1758) and small coal (1855).^[2] In racing slang the pea was the favourite (1888), from the pea in the thimblerig game.^[2][13] The pea of peacock is unrelated: it comes from pāvō (“peacock”).^[2][14]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English pise.^[7]
• 1611 – the plural peaes.^[7]
• 1666 – a single seed of the pea plant.^[2][5]
• 1683 – a plant like the pea.^[2]
• 1699 – the pea plant itself.^[2]
• 1758 – fish roe.^[2]
• 1803 – pea-shooter.^[4]
• 1855 – very small coal, pea-coal.^[2]
• 1888 – the favourite in a race.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The small, round, usually green seed of a climbing leguminous plant, eaten as a vegetable: a bowl of buttered peas.^[15][5][2]
2. The plant itself, Pisum sativum, with white flowers and long green pods.^[15][2]
3. Any of several related plants or their seeds, such as the sweet pea or the chickpea.^[15][2]
4. Something small and round like a pea, as fish roe or small coal.^[2]
5. (Australian, informal) The favourite in a race or contest.^[2][13]

Word family

• pealike

Related words

• pease
• peanut

References

1. ^ 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 s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins