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earthapple

noun

Etymology

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.

  1. inherited from *erþapplu✻
  2. inherited from eorþæppel — “cucumber”
  3. inherited from *erth-appel✻

Definitions

  1. A Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).

  2. A potato.

    • 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.
    • It was supper-time on board the Stormchaser, and the sky pirates were all seated round a longbench tucking into a meal of baked snowbird and earthapple mash.
    • He finished carefully arranging a plate of fresh prawns, earthapples, and kale he'd bought special for Captain Falcon in Bangalang.

  3. The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), or its fruit.

  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. The name of various tuberous plants, especially sowbread (genus Cyclamen).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for earthapple. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA