Earthapple
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).
- 2 A potato. 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 mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), or its fruit. historical
- 4 The name of various tuberous plants, especially sowbread (genus Cyclamen). obsolete
Example
More examples"Earthapple means the same thing as potato."
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.
Related phrases
More for "earthapple"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.