pineapple

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pinappel (“pine cone”),^[2][3][4] a compound of pine (“pine tree”) and appel (“apple, fruit”).^[2][5][6][3] The word for the tree came into Old English from Latin pīnus (“pine tree”).^[7][3] The same compound for the cone is found in other languages: Medieval Latin pomum pini, Old French pume de pin (now pomme de pin), Middle Dutch pijnappel, Middle Low German pinappel and Old High German pīnapful.^[5] For the pine cone Old English also had pinhnyte (“pine nut”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pine tree, or pine trees collectively: about 1390, in the Pistel of Swete Susan.^[5] The sense "pine cone" is recorded from before 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus,^[5][2] and a late 14th-century Bible translation used it for the pomegranate, rendering Latin malum punicum.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The name passed to the tropical fruit because its shape and segmented skin looked like a pine cone;^[7][8][9] the OED's first record of the fruit is in John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia (1624),^[5] while Etymonline dates it to the 1660s.^[6] The word pine cone appeared in the 1690s and replaced pineapple in its first sense, which now survives only in regional English.^[6][5] An ornament in the shape of a pine cone, later of a pineapple, is recorded from 1448.^[5][4] In the First World War soldiers called a hand grenade a pineapple from its shape;^[10][5][9] British slang on the pineapple, on the dole (1937), was a pun on the Dole Food Company, and Australians say to get the rough end of the pineapple for getting a raw deal (1961).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – a pine tree (obsolete by 1599).^[5]
• before 1398 – a pine cone.^[5][2]
• 1448 – an ornament shaped like a pine cone.^[5]
• 1560 – a pine nut (obsolete by 1592).^[5]
• 1624 – the tropical fruit.^[5]
• 1796 – the pineapple strawberry.^[5]
• 1916 – slang, a hand grenade.^[10]
• 1937 – British slang, the dole.^[5]
• 1961 – Australian, the wrong end of the pineapple.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The large juicy fruit of a tropical American plant, with yellow flesh, a tough segmented skin and a tuft of stiff leaves on top.^[9][4][5]
2. The plant that bears it, Ananas comosus, a bromeliad with spiny leaves.^[9][4]
3. An ornament, such as a finial on furniture, shaped like a pine cone or a pineapple.^[4][5]
4. (slang) A hand grenade or small bomb.^[9][10][5]
5. (regional) A pine cone.^[5][11]

Word family

• pine nut

Related words

• apple
• pine
• pine cone
• ananas

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press