Mad-apple

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    eggplant; aubergine obsolete

Etymology

Calque of Renaissance Latin malum insanum, itself calqued from Italian melanzana, reanalyzed as if mela insana, perhaps under the influence of beliefs that it could cause various diseases. See further etymology at melongene.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.