Etymology

earthapple

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Today it means: A Jerusalem artichoke (the tuber of Helianthus tuberosus); the plant that produces it. Full definition →

Middle English *erth-appel ← Old English eorþæppel ← Proto-West Germanic *erþapplu
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The story

  1. Dutch · calque ofaardappel“potato”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*erþapplu
  3. Old English · inherited fromeorþæppel“cucumber”
  4. Middle English · inherited from*erth-appel
  5. English todayearthapple

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.