pear

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pere,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English pere, also peru,^[3][4][5][6] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *peru,^[1] a word common to West Germanic,^[3][5] from Late Latin pera, also pira,^[7][3][4] an alteration of Latin pirum (“pear”) in which the neuter plural pira was taken as a feminine singular.^[7][3][4][8] The Latin word is of unknown, probably non-Indo-European origin,^[7][9][10] perhaps from a Mediterranean or Semitic language,^[3][4] and is related to Ancient Greek ἄπιον (ápion, “pear”) and ἄπιος (ápios, “pear tree”), borrowed from the same source.^{[7][10][4][11]} The same Latin form gave Middle Dutch pere, Middle Low German pere, Old High German bira (now German Birne) and Dutch peer,^[7][3][4][5] and, in the Romance languages, French poire, Italian pera and Spanish pera.^[7][4] The OED notes that the English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman pere, also peire.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fleshy fruit of the pear tree: in Ælfric's Grammar, about 1000.^[7][4] Place names such as Perham, recorded from the 11th century, suggest that the word was current earlier.^[7] Word Origins notes that it was adopted from Latin before the Anglo-Saxons came to England.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English pere also named the tree (about 1390).^[7] From 1340 to 1631 it was used in negative phrases for a thing of little worth.^[7][2] Chaucer uses the word three times.^[13] From 1576 a pear was something pear-shaped, especially a pear-shaped pearl;^[7] from 1630 it also named an instrument of torture that could be opened out inside the body.^[7] It was applied to other fruits, such as the prickly pear (from 1805, in the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition) and the avocado (from 1895).^[7] The phrase go pear-shaped, to go wrong, is Royal Air Force slang first recorded in the early 1980s, though probably older.^[12] In Scots a pear was also a peg-top, probably from its shape.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English pere, peru, in Ælfric's Grammar.^[7][4]
• before 1300 – Middle English pere, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[4]
• 1340 – in negative phrases, a thing of little value (obsolete by 1631).^[7]
• c. 1390 – the pear tree.^[7]
• 1576 – something pear-shaped, especially a pearl.^[7]
• c. 1612 – other fruits thought to resemble the pear.^[7]
• 1630 – an instrument of torture.^[7]
• 1805 – the prickly pear, in the United States.^[7]
• 1831 – pearwood.^[7]
• 1895 – the avocado.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sweet, juicy fruit of the pear tree, rounded at the base and narrowing towards the stalk, with a slightly gritty flesh: She sliced a ripe pear into the salad.^[15][9][7]
2. The tree that bears this fruit, Pyrus communis, of the rose family.^[15][9][7]
3. The wood of this tree, used for furniture; pearwood.^[15][7]
4. Any of several other plants or fruits thought to resemble the pear, such as the prickly pear or the avocado.^[7][9]

Word family

• pearlike
• pear-shaped
• perry
• alligator pear
• avocado pear

Related words

• pyriform

Usage notes

A dialect verb pear, a shortened form of appear, was used in Scotland, Cumberland and the West Country,^[14][9][16] and in 19th-century underworld slang to pear was to inform the police of a robbery and then warn the thieves.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com