pomegranate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English poumgarnet, also pomegarnade and pome granate,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French pome grenate,^[5][6][7][8] from pome (“apple, fruit”) and grenate (“having grains; pomegranate”).^[3][7] Barnhart and Etymonline add a direct borrowing, borrowed from Medieval Latin pōmum grānātum (“apple with many seeds”).^[3][6] The second part goes back to Latin grānāta, the feminine of grānātus (“having many seeds”), from grānum (“grain, seed”),^[3][6][9] from Proto-Indo-European *gre-no- (“grain”).^[6] The first goes back to Latin pōmum (“apple, fruit”).^[9][7]

The classical Latin name was mālum grānātum (“seeded apple”), or mālum Pūnicum (“Punic apple”).^[6][9] Ayto takes the reduced form Vulgar Latin *grānāta as the step into Old French, with pome added afterwards.^[9] The OED gives a more detailed route: the English word comes from Anglo-Norman pome gernate and Middle French pomme granade, recorded in Old French about 1165 as pume grenate, and these probably come from Italian pomogranato, itself either the classical name with pomo substituted for the first element or pōmum grānātum directly, although the Italian form is first attested only in the 14th century.^[10] The early English forms show metathesis of r, as in Anglo-Norman.^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit of the tree: the OED's first record is about 1330, in Horn Child.^[10] Barnhart finds pomme-garnate probably about 1300 and poumgarnet about 1330,^[3] and Etymonline also dates poumgarnet to about 1300.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Literally the word means "many-seeded apple".^[9][6] Weekley notes that exotic fruits are commonly called apples.^[11] The name of the fruit also came to stand for the tree, for carved or embroidered images of the fruit, and for its colour.^[10][12] The -gra- spelling was restored in English in the early 15th century.^[6] French later dropped the first element, so that the fruit is now simply French grenade,^[12][8] and grenade, from Old French grenate, got its name because early grenades looked like pomegranates.^[9]

In Australia from 1912 pomegranate was a colloquial word for a British immigrant.^[10][13] Green's Dictionary of Slang explains it as a play on the sound of immigrant, recording the form Pummy Grant,^[13] and the Shorter Oxford connects it with the name Jimmy Grant for an immigrant.^[12] The OED treats it as apparently the origin, by shortening, of pommy, which has since replaced it.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – the fruit, as pomme-garnate and poumgarnet.^[3][6] The OED's first quotation is from about 1330.^[10]
• before 1382 – the tree, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[10] Etymonline dates this use to the late 14th century.^[6]
• before 1382 – an ornamental representation of the fruit, also in the Wycliffite Bible.^[10]
• early 15th century – the -gra- spelling restored.^[6]
• c. 1780 – the colour of the rind or flesh, orange-red or deep red.^[10]
• 1844 – adjective, of that colour.^[10]
• 1873 – the flower of the tree (now obsolete).^[10]
• 1890 – in Australia, the native pomegranate (now obsolete).^[10]
• 1912 – in Australia, a British immigrant.^[10][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A round fruit with a tough reddish or yellow rind and many seeds, each enclosed in juicy red pulp.^[14][4][10]
2. The Asian shrub or small tree that bears this fruit, Punica granatum.^[14][10]
3. A carved or embroidered image of the fruit, used as an ornament.^[10][12]
4. An orange-red or deep red colour.^[10][12]
5. (Australian, colloquial, obsolete) A British immigrant to Australia.^[10][12][13]

Adjective

1. Of the colour of the fruit; orange-red or yellowish red.^[10][12]

Word family

• pommy

Related words

• pome
• grenade
• grain
• garnet
• granadilla
• pomade
• pomander
• pommel
• pomology
• malic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f 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 e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins