Etymology

kumquat

kum·quat
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Today it means: A small, orange citrus-like fruit which is native to Asia (Citrus japonica, syn. Fortunella japonica). Full definition →

Cantonese 金橘
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The story

  1. Cantonese · borrowed from金橘
  2. English todaykumquat

From Cantonese 金橘 (gam¹ gwat¹) or 金桔 (gam¹ gwat¹, literally “golden tangerine”). Related to loquat – same second character.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.