The word jargonelle presents one of etymology's most delightful surprises: a variety of pear named after a gemstone, traced through French and Arabic to a Persian word meaning gold-colored. The connection has nothing to do with the more familiar English word jargon (meaning specialized or unintelligible language) — rather, it derives from a homonymous but etymologically distinct French word jargon, denoting a type of translucent yellowish gem, probably a variety of zircon.
The gemstone sense of French jargon derives from Arabic zarqūn (gold-colored), itself from Persian zargun (gold-colored, golden), a compound of zar (gold) and gun (color). This same Persian word, through a different borrowing path, gives English the mineral name zircon and the chemical element zirconium (atomic number 40). The jargonelle pear and zirconium are thus etymological cousins, united by their Persian ancestor's description of golden color.
The French diminutive suffix -elle was added to create jargonelle, apparently comparing the pear to a small version of the gem — its smooth, lustrous, yellowish-green skin suggesting the translucent quality of the stone. This kind of naming, comparing a fruit to a precious material, has parallels in other languages: the German Goldparmäne (golden parmesan) names an apple variety, and numerous fruit cultivar names reference jewels, metals, and other precious substances.
The jargonelle pear itself is one of the oldest named varieties in European pomology. It is an early-ripening pear, typically ready for harvest in late July or August, producing fruit that is best eaten fresh rather than stored. The flesh is somewhat grainy (as is typical of early pears), with a distinctive musky or perfumed flavor that was highly prized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. English and French horticultural writers of the period discussed the jargonelle extensively, and it featured in the great collections of fruit varieties
The variety appears to have originated in France and was introduced to England in the seventeenth century, where it became one of the most widely planted pear varieties. Its early ripening made it valuable in an era before cold storage, as it provided fresh fruit at a time when most other pears were still developing on the tree.
In modern pomology, the jargonelle has been largely superseded by more productive and disease-resistant varieties, but it survives in heritage orchards and among enthusiasts of historical fruit cultivation. The word itself endures as one of the more charming examples of the evocative naming traditions that characterize the vocabulary of fruit growing — a small golden gem of a word for a small golden gem of a pear.