quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- melon[melon 词源字典]
- melon: [14] Greek mēlon actually meant ‘apple’. But combination with pépōn ‘ripe’ (a relative of English peptic [17]) produced mēlopépōn, which was used for ‘melon’. This passed into Latin as mēlopepō, but the -pepō part was subsequently dropped, giving mēlō – source, via Old French, of English melon.
=> marmalade[melon etymology, melon origin, 英语词源] - melon (n.)
- late 14c., from Old French melon (13c.), from Medieval Latin melonem (nominative melo), from Latin melopeponem, a kind of pumpkin, from Greek melopepon "gourd-apple" (name for several kinds of gourds bearing sweet fruit), from melon "apple" (see malic) + pepon, a kind of gourd, probably noun use of pepon "ripe" (see pumpkin).
In Greek, melon was used in a generic way for all foreign fruits (compare similar use of apple). The Greek plural of "melon" was used from ancient times for "a girl's breasts."