Myths & disputes

datefruit

The fruit's name is Greek dáktylos 'finger', which Greeks also used for the date; it passed through Latin, Occitan and French into English around 1300.

Weakest linkProbable

The story you may have heard

The extracted draft ran Hebrew deqel → Arabic daqal → Greek dáktylos, as if the fruit's name were Hebrew. Hebrew deqel, Aramaic diqlā and Arabic daqal are cognates, not stages in a chain, and the Greek word is the ordinary word for 'finger'. Wiktionary and Etymonline suggest a Semitic palm name may have nudged Greeks to call the fruit 'finger' (folk etymology), but no text confirms it: a possibility, not a pedigree.

The road to English

From Latin to Italian

340 BCEAncient Greek

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

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