Food & drinkMyths & disputes

persimmon

Virginia's native date-plum takes its name from a Powhatan word for fruit dried for keeping; it has nothing to do with Persia, and its hard wood sent the word to Japan on golf clubs.

Weakest linkCertain

The story you may have heard

That persimmon comes from Persian khormaloo 'date-plum' (repeated in Wikipedia's description). The English records start in 1610s Virginia with spellings such as putchamin and pessamin, from Powhatan.

The road to English

From English to German

From English to Japanese

From English to Korean

1612Powhatan

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

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