Origins
The word 'tomato' is a loan from Spanish 'tomate,' which was itself borrowed from Nahuatl 'tomatl,' the language of the Aztec empire.βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ Nahuatl 'tomatl' derives from the verb 'tomΔhua' (to swell, to become fat, to grow plump), making the tomato literally 'the swelling fruit' β a name that captures the way the fruit visibly swells and rounds as it ripens.
However, the word's application has shifted significantly from its original Nahuatl usage. In Nahuatl, 'tomatl' was a general term that applied to several round, pulpy fruits, and it most commonly referred to what English speakers call the tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) β the small green fruit enclosed in a papery husk. The large red fruit that we call the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) was distinguished in Nahuatl as 'xΔ«tomatl' (often written 'jitomate'), meaning roughly 'navel tomato' or 'large tomato,' from 'xΔ«ctli' (navel, belly button) + 'tomatl.' Spanish borrowed the generic 'tomatl' and applied it primarily to the larger red fruit, a semantic shift that has persisted in all the European languages that subsequently borrowed the word.
The tomato plant is native to western South America (modern Peru and Ecuador) but was domesticated in Mesoamerica, where it became a staple of Aztec cuisine. When the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenth century, they encountered tomatoes in the markets of TenochtitlΓ‘n and brought them back to Europe. The earliest European mention of the tomato dates to 1544, when the Italian herbalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli described it as 'pomi d'oro' (golden apples), suggesting that the first tomatoes to reach Italy were a yellow variety.
Development
The Italian name 'pomodoro' (from 'pomo d'oro,' golden apple) stuck and remains the standard Italian word. Russian 'ΠΏΠΎΠΌΠΈΠ΄ΠΎΡ' (pomidor) was borrowed from Italian. French initially used 'pomme d'amour' (love apple), either as a corruption of 'pomo d'oro' (pomme d'or β pomme d'amour) or from an association of the tomato with aphrodisiac properties. French eventually adopted 'tomate' from Spanish in the eighteenth century.
In English, the word appears first as 'tomate' (1604), reflecting the Spanish pronunciation, and later as 'tomato.' The pronunciation split between British English /tΙΛmΙΛtΙΚ/ and American English /tΙΛmeΙͺtoΚ/ is relatively recent, dating to the eighteenth or nineteenth century, and was immortalized in the Gershwin song 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off' (1937): 'You say tomato, I say tomahto.'
For over two centuries after its introduction to Europe, the tomato was widely regarded with suspicion. It belongs to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), alongside the genuinely poisonous deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) and the toxic green parts of the potato plant. Europeans noticed the family resemblance and feared the fruit. In Britain and parts of North America, the tomato was grown as an ornamental curiosity well into the nineteenth century, and the idea that it was poisonous persisted in folk belief long after Italians and Spaniards had made it a dietary staple.
Legacy
'Tomato' is one of several Nahuatl words that entered English through Spanish, joining 'chocolate' (from 'xocolΔtl'), 'avocado' (from 'Δhuacatl'), 'chili' (from 'chΔ«lli'), and 'coyote' (from 'coyΕtl') as Aztec contributions to the global vocabulary.