Everyday LifeGreek → English
Prune
/pruːn/noun
A dried plum.
The Greek roots
προῦμνον
proûmnon
plum
Literally: “plum”
Follow a root:προῦμνον2 words
The story of the word
Greek προῦμνον is the plum, and the word is almost certainly not Greek in origin; it came in from a language of Asia Minor along with the fruit itself. Latin took it as prunum, which produced Old English plūme, our plum, and Old French prune, our dried one, so both English words descend from the same Greek loan by different routes. The verb to prune a hedge is unrelated, from Old French proignier, and the collision of the two is pure accident.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
plumPrunus
In a sentence
He soaked the prunes overnight and put them on the porridge.