earthapple

名词 n.
中文释义

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. A Jerusalem artichoke (the tuber of Helianthus tuberosus); the plant that produces it.
  2. A potato; the plant that produces it. rare
    — The most probable account I have been able to collect is, that a vessel of Sir Walter Raleigh's, returning from Guiana, put into the west of Ireland in distress, having on board some potatoes which they called earth-apples.
  3. The fruit of the mandrake (Mandragora officinarum); the plant itself. historical
  4. Any of various tubers or the tuberous plants that produce them, especially sowbread (genus Cyclamen). obsolete

词形变化

earthapples plural earth-apple alternative earth apple alternative

词源

From earlier erth-apple (“tuberous root of the sowbread", also "tomato-like fruit of the mandrake”), from Middle English *erth-appel, from Old English eorþæppel (“cucumber”, literally “earth or ground-apple”), from Proto-West Germanic *erþapplu (the name of various types of fruits which grow on or below the ground; gourd, melon, squash), equivalent to earth + apple. The modern sense of "potato" is a calque of Dutch aardappel (“potato”). Compare also German Erdapfel, French pomme de terre.
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