Etymograph

English

pomegranate

Pomegranate comes from Middle English pome-garnet, from Middle French pomme granade, probably via Italian pomogranato, from pōmum ‘fruit’ + Latin grānātum ‘pomegranate’ (from grānum ‘seed’).

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānum‘grain, seed’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānātus‘having many seeds’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānātum‘pomegranate’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentpomogranato‘pomegranate’uncertain
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600pomme granade
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pome-garnet‘pomegranate’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1644pomegranate

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānum‘grain, seed’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānātus‘having many seeds’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānātum‘pomegranate’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentpomogranato‘pomegranate’uncertain
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600pomme granade
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pome-garnet‘pomegranate’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1644pomegranate

Earliest quotation: 1644, [Diary entry for 8 February 1644]: “I finish'd this day with a walke in the…”

Linked words

pairs

  • pomegranate and grenade both from Latin grānātum ‘having grains’

Every English word from Latin grānum

Today it means

noun The fruit of the Punica granatum, about the size of an orange with a thick, hard, reddish skin enclosing many seeds, each with an edible pink or red pulp tasting both sweet and tart.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin grānum / pomegranate

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