The story
- Proto-Algonquian · derived from*paᐧʔsamwa“dry”
- Powhatan · borrowed frompichamins
- English todaypersimmon
From Powhatan pichamins, pushemins, pasimenan (“dried fruit”), for the first element, compare Proto-Algonquian *paᐧʔsamwa (“dry”). The second element is from the same Proto-Algonquian root *-imin (“fruit, berry”) as Unami ximin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.