Everyday LifeGreek → English
Peach
/pitʃ/noun
A soft round stone fruit with velvety skin and yellow or white flesh.
The Greek roots
Περσικόν
Persikón
Persian
μῆλον
mêlon
apple, tree fruit
Literally: “Persian apple”
The story of the word
Greeks met the fruit arriving from the east through Persia and called it the Persian apple, not knowing it had come from China long before. Latin shortened the phrase to persica, and French pesche wore that down to the single syllable English uses. The apple half is unusually productive: μῆλον also lies behind melon, and behind marmalade through μελίμηλον, the honey apple.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- c. 1400
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
melonmarmaladechamomile
In a sentence
The peaches were still hard, so they sat on the sill for three days.
Peach juice down both arms is the correct way to eat one.