Etymology

fruit

F4R1U1I1T1

Today it means: A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically Full definition →

First used 1900Middle English fruyt ← Old French fruit ← Latin frūctus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

fruit · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰrewHg-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰruHgyéti
  3. Proto-Italic*frūgjōr
  4. Proto-Italic*frūjōr
  5. Latinfruor
  6. Latinfrūctus
  7. Old Frenchfruit
  8. Middle Englishfruyt
  9. English todayfruit

From Middle English fruyt, frut (“fruits and vegetables”), from Old French fruit (“produce, fruits and vegetables”), from Latin fruitus (“enjoyment, proceeds, profits, produce, income”), frūctus and frūx (“crop, produce, fruit”) (compare Latin fruor (“have the benefit of, to use, to enjoy”)). Cognate with English brook (“to bear, tolerate”) and German brauchen (“to need”). Partially displaced native Old English wæstm, ofett and æppel (whence modern ovest and apple). Compare Dutch vrucht, German Frucht, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish frukt, Danish frugt. In the derogatory senses of “crazy person” and “homosexual or effeminate man”, possibly a shortening of fruitcake, or of independent origin, compare Fruit (slang).

Fruit · proper noun2

* As a German surname, Americanized from Fruth, and also Frucht. * As a French and West Flemish surname, from the noun fruit. Sometimes also shortened from the personal name Godefrait, a French form of Godfrey.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1900 An effeminate man.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.