Edit page | Page history | Printable version

apricot

(Science: botany) a fruit allied to the plum, of an orange colour, oval shape, and delicious taste; also, the tree (prunus Armeniaca of Linnaeus) which bears this fruit. By cultivation it has been introduced throughout the temperate zone.

Origin: oe. Apricock, abricot, f. Abricot, fr. Sp. Albaricoque or pg. Albricoque, fr. Ar. Albirqq, al-burqq. Though the E. And f. Form abricot is derived from the arabic through the spanish, yet the arabic word itself was formed from the gr, pl. (Diosc. C. 1000) fr. L. Praecoquus, praecox, early ripe. The older E. Form apricock was prob. Taken direct from pg. See Precocious, Cook.