Etymologically
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abricot

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /a.bʁi.ko/[1]

Forms

abricot m (plural abricots)[1] Aubercot (1512–1525), arbricoz (1545); abricot from 1525–1547, standard in dictionaries from Cotgrave (1611) and finally from Furetière (1690).[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is an indirect borrowing of Arabic البرقوق (al-barqūq), with the article ال (al-).[6][2][1][7] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF give it as borrowed from Catalan albercoc, which gave the early form “aubercot”;[3][5][1] the Grand Robert and Schmidt take the modern form from Spanish albaricoque or Portuguese albricoque.[2][8] The Arabic word was borrowed from Late Greek Ancient Greek πραικόκιον (praikókion),[6][3][1] from Latin praecoquum (“early-ripening (fruit)”), from praecox (“precocious”),[6][3][9] from prae- (“before”) and coquō (“to cook, ripen”).[10] So, as Littré noted, a Latin word came back into Romance through Arabic.[9] It is a doublet of précoce.[1]

Native to China, the apricot came to the Mediterranean through Syria and Armenia, whence its Greek and Latin name “Armenian fruit”; the Arabs reintroduced its cultivation in Andalusia and Sicily.[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jacques Thenaud's Voyage d'outremer (1512) lists aubercotz among fruit trees;[8][5] Charles Estienne writes abricot in 1547.[8][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense, the round, stone fruit with orange-yellow flesh.[10][4] As a colour it is a soft orange-yellow, and the invariable adjective is found in Balzac (culotte... couleur abricot).[5][10] In thieves' slang and later in informal French, abricot is also a name for the vulva.[8][1] The tree is the abricotier (1526).[3]

Timeline

  • 1512 – Aubercotz (Thenaud).[8][5]
  • 1526 – Abricotier.[3]
  • 1547 – Abricot (Charles Estienne).[8][3]
  • 1611 – Abricot in Cotgrave's dictionary.[4]
  • 1843 – Abricotine.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An apricot.[10][1]
  2. A soft orange-yellow colour.[10][1]
  3. (vulgar) The vulva.[1][8]

Adjective

  1. Apricot-coloured (invariable).[5][1]

Word family

  • abricotier
  • abricotine

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 284a
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Schmidt, Bernhard (1914), Die spanischen Elemente im französischen Wortschatz, Halle: Niemeyer
  9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert