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Earthapple

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus).
  2. 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. 3
    The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), or its fruit. historical
  4. 4
    The name of various tuberous plants, especially sowbread (genus Cyclamen). obsolete

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.

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