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Etymology and origin of the English word peach

Merriam-Webster gives the fruit and the verb "to inform against" separate entries with different origins.[1]

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpiːt͡ʃ/[2]

peach1 fruit

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
a1400, translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman pesche
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek Περσίς

Etymology

The fruit is borrowed from Anglo-Norman pesche, peche, and Old French pesche,[3][4][5] and partly a direct borrowing of Medieval Latin pesca,[6][7] from Late Latin persica, an alteration of Latin persicum,[3][8][9] short for mālum Persicum (“Persian apple”),[9][10][11] from the neuter of Persicus (“Persian”).[1] The Latin name translates Ancient Greek Περσικὸν μῆλον (Persikòn mêlon),[10][6] from Περσίς (Persís, “Persia”).[7][6] Late Latin persica was a neuter plural taken as a feminine singular,[12][13] and Barnhart notes the variant pessica.[7] The fruit is native to China, and it became known in Europe after it had reached Persia;[9][10] Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories adds that Persian served the Greeks and Romans as a catch-all word for things from the distant East.[10] Old English persoc, German Pfirsich and Dutch perzik are earlier borrowings of the same Latin word.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The peach tree: before 1400, in an English translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie;[3] the fruit is recorded before 1425, in the Romaunt of the Rose.[3] Barnhart finds peche before 1400, and the surname Pecche as early as 1184–85.[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) described the tree and its fruit, with its furrowed stone, at length.[14] The name was extended to other plants with peach-like leaves or fruit from 1760.[3] From 1710 a peach was colloquially an especially fine person or thing, and particularly an attractive young woman.[3][15] In American English peach was short for peach brandy from 1809 to 1880.[3] It names the colour of the fruit from 1831, although the adjective "peach-coloured" is recorded from 1583.[3] The peaches-and-cream complexion is recorded from 1893,[3] and the sense of something easy or delightful, originally American, from 1920.[3] In Cornish tin mining, peach (1778) was the name of two kinds of rock, apparently from their velvety look.[3]

Timeline

  • 1184–85 – Pecche, as a surname.[7]
  • a1400 – the peach tree.[3]
  • a1425 – the fruit.[3]
  • 1583 – adjective, peach-coloured.[3]
  • 1710 – an especially fine person or thing; an attractive young woman.[3]
  • 1831 – the colour of a peach.[3]
  • 1893 – a fair complexion with pink cheeks.[3]
  • 1920 – something easy or delightful.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A round, juicy fruit with downy yellow and red skin, sweet yellowish flesh and a single stone.
  2. The tree, Prunus persica, that bears this fruit, native to China and grown in warm temperate regions.
  3. A pinkish-yellow to orange colour.
  4. (informal) A particularly fine or attractive person or thing: That goal was a peach.

Adjective

  1. Of the colour of a ripe peach.

Word family

  • peachy
  • peach melba
  • peach-coloured
  • peaches and cream

peach2 inform against

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1465, Paston Letters

Etymology

The verb "to inform against" is pechen (“to accuse”), a shortening of apechen (“to accuse”), the source of the obsolete appeach,[1][3][5][6] which the American Heritage Dictionary derives probably from Anglo-Norman *anpecher, from Late Latin impedicō (“to entangle”).[16] It is related to impeach.[3][17][6] Etymonline compares the shortening of peal from appeal.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To accuse someone formally; to impeach or bring to trial: 1465, in the Paston Letters;[3] this sense was obsolete by 1728.[3] Etymonline dates pechen "to accuse, indict" to about 1400.[6] Weekley quotes a Paston letter about a woman who had apeched a man "and all his felawshepe".[17]

Semantic evolution

From formal accusation the verb narrowed to giving evidence against one's accomplices: transitively from 1570, in Foxe's Actes and Monumentes,[3] and intransitively, to turn informer, from 1598, in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.[3] Merriam-Webster's earliest date for the transitive sense is 1560,[1] and Etymonline's the 1560s.[6] In the 19th century it was also used colloquially for divulging information (1852–1883).[3] The SOED labels the intransitive use slang,[8] and the transitive use is now rare.[3]

Timeline

  • 1465 – to accuse formally, impeach (obsolete).[3]
  • 1570 – to inform against an accomplice.[3]
  • 1598 – to turn informer, in Henry IV, Part 1.[3]
  • 1852 – to divulge, blab (obsolete).[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. (archaic or slang) To inform against an accomplice; to turn informer, often with on or against.
  2. (archaic) To betray someone by giving incriminating evidence.

Word family

  • peacher

References

  1. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  16. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Peach.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/peach. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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