'Peach' means 'Persian apple' in Latin — but the fruit is actually from China, misattributed via the SilkRoad.
Definition
A round stone fruit with juicy yellow flesh, downy pinkish-yellow skin, and a rough stone.
The Full Story
Latin13th centurywell-attested
From Old French "pesche" (modern French "pêche"), from Medieval Latin "pesca," from Late Latin "persica" (peach, short for "persicum malum," literally "Persian apple"), from Latin "Persicus" (Persian), from Greek "Περσικός" (Persikós, Persian). The fruit was believed by the Romans to have originated in Persia (modern Iran), though modern botany traces the peach (Prunus persica) to China, where it was domesticated around 6000 BCE. The peach travelled westward along the SilkRoad
Did you know?
The peach is etymologically a 'Persian apple,' but it originated in China and was domesticated there over 4,000 years ago. It reached Persia via the Silk Road, and the Romans, encountering it from Persian traders, assumed Persia was its homeland — a geographical mistake preserved in the English word to this day.
. Cognates across Europe preserve the "Persian" etymology: German "Pfirsich" (from "persica" via Old High German "pfersih"), Italian "pesca," Spanish "melocotón" (from Latin "malum cotoneum," though
by "persica"), and Dutch "perzik." The word entered English by the 14th century through Anglo-Norman French. Key roots: Persicum (Latin: "Persian, of Persia").