Myths & disputes

figfruit

English fig comes from Latin fīcus by way of Occitan and Old French. Where the Latin word itself came from is unknown; it probably shares a lost Mediterranean source with Greek sŷkon.

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The story you may have heard

The extracted draft started fig in Phoenician pg 'ripe fig', compare Hebrew paggâ 'unripe fig' (Song of Songs 2:13). The idea goes back to a 1902 botany handbook. It needs Semitic p- to give Latin f- and a g to give c, and no Phoenician-to-Latin channel is documented. Etymonline and Wiktionary mention it only as a 'perhaps'. Standard etymological dictionaries call fīcus a Mediterranean substrate word of unknown source.

The road to English

From Latin to Old English

From Late Latin to Old Spanish, Spanish

160 BCELatin

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

The road to English

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