The story
- Italian · derived frommelanzana
- Renaissance Latin · calque ofmalum insanum
- English todaymad apple
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.
Words from the same roots
Italianmelanzana all →
malidzanomelongene
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.