Apricot

My wife and I were having breakfast. Looking at the jar of apricot jam on the table, my wife asked, “Why does the French word start with ‘ab’ and the English word starts with ‘ap’?” I should mention we live in Canada—i.e., bilingual food labels.

And so began another word search. Where does the word ‘apricot’ come from and why both ‘ap’ and ‘ab’? Let’s trace apricot’s journey around the Mediterranean from ‘p to ‘b’ and back to ‘p’ again.

Some sources suggest that apricots were first found in ancient Armenia. Others suggest the Himalayas. The word apricot probably comes from Latin malum praecoquum, malum meaning fruit and praecoquum meaning early ripening. In short, an apricot was a praecoquum. (Preacoquum is also the origin of the word precocious; for example, a precocious or ‘early ripening’ child).

The Latin terms praecoquum and praecox found their way to Byzantine Greek berikkokia and then to Arabic al-birquq. During the Islamic predomination of the Mediterranean in the years following the decline of the Roman Empire, Arabic al-birquq came to Portuguese as albricoque, to Spanish Catalan as abercoc, and later to medieval France as aubercot, eventually becoming French abricot. From these origins, the word abrecock is first seen in English during the 1550s.

So why did the English word become apricot instead of abrecock? An English etymological dictionary from 1671 uses apricot. Why? The noted etymologist, Anatoly Liberman, suggests that "the abr had been changed to apr for no obvious reason”! Perhaps a spelling error? A tired copywriter? Who knows?

Perhaps the editor of the 1671 dictionary had a preference or predisposition for Latin; i.e., ‘p’ represents the apricot’s Latin roots whereas ‘b’ represents the word’s Arabic roots. In any case, the ‘apr’ version of the word apricot in English appears to be a full-circle return to its Latin origins.

The apricot fruit was introduced to England in 1524. The first known use of the word apricot is from 1580. The Latin or scientific name for apricot has been both prunum armeniacum and malum armeniacum, based on the supposed origin of the apricot in Armenia. The name of the color ‘apricot’ is from 1906.

Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://blog.oup.com/2012/08/word-origin-apricot-etymology/