προῦμνον

Forms

προῦμνον (proûmnon) n (genitive προύμνου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

From προύμνη (proúmnē, “plum tree”).^[2][3][4] Beekes, Frisk and Chantraine think the tree name was probably borrowed together with the tree from an unknown language of Asia Minor, since the plum came to Greece fairly late, and they compare the Phrygian place name Πρυμνησσός.^[2][3][4] Beekes also marks it as possibly Pre-Greek.^[2]

It was borrowed as Latin prūnum and Latin prūnus, perhaps through an intermediate form without the /m/.^[2][3] Bailly's statement that the Greek word comes from the Latin reverses this.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit name first appears in Galen, in the 2nd century AD, for the plum.^[6][7][8] The tree, προύμνη (proúmnē), is named earlier by Theophrastus.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a term of the physicians: after Galen it is used by the 6th-century medical writers Aëtius and Alexander of Tralles.^[6][8] The modern Greek name of the plum is δαμάσκηνο (damáskino), “the Damascene”, not this word.^[9]

Through Latin prunum the word reached the western languages: Vulgar Latin *pruna gave French prune and English prune, and an early Germanic borrowing gave Old English plūme, English plum, with the change of /pr-/ to /pl-/ found only in some Germanic languages.^[10]

Timeline

• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus names the plum tree προύμνη (proúmnē).^[2][6][8]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses προῦμνον for the plum.^[6][7][8]
• 6th century AD – The physicians Aëtius and Alexander of Tralles use it.^[6][8]
• Mid-14th century – English borrows prune from Old French, from the Latin form of the word.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plum, the fruit of the plum tree.^[6][11][12]

Related words

• προύμνη (proúmnē)
• Latin prūnum
• English plum
• English prune

Usage notes

A later name for the wild kind is ἀγριοδαμάσκηνον (agriodamáskēnon).^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
12. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
13. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica