Myths & disputes

almond

Greek amygdálē, a word of unknown, probably Pre-Greek origin, became Latin amygdala and Late Latin amandula, then French amande and English almond. The Arabic-looking al- was picked up along the way.

Weakest linkProbable

The story you may have heard

The extracted draft put Arabic lawz 'almond' into the line, and the al- of almond looks like the Arabic article. Lawz is unrelated: it gave Medieval Latin amygdala only its anatomical sense 'tonsil' (a semantic loan). The al- is a Romance remodelling. Blažek has suggested a Semitic source for Greek amygdálē (compare Hebrew šāqēd 'almond'), but most specialists, following Beekes, treat it as Pre-Greek.

The road to English

From Latin to Old English

From Late Latin to Old Spanish, Spanish

From Late Latin to Italian

400 BCEAncient Greek

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

The road to English

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