The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromμάργαρον“pearl”
- French · borrowed frommargarine
- English todaymargarine
Borrowed from French margarine, from acide margarique (“margaric acid”), from Ancient Greek μάργαρον (márgaron, “pearl”), in allusion to its pearly lustre, with the suffix -ine, influenced by glycérine (“glycerine”). The reasons why the ⟨-g-⟩ is pronounced /dʒ/ remain unclear.
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekμάργαρον all →
margaricmargarodite
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.