pomegranate

Meanings

Noun

• The fruit of the Punica granatum, about the size of an orange with a thick, hard, reddish skin enclosing many seeds, each with an edible pink or red pulp tasting both sweet and tart.
• The shrub or small tree that bears the fruit.
• A dark red or orange-red colour, like that of the pulp or skin of a pomegranate fruit.
• A person of British descent, especially one who has (recently) immigrated to Australia; a pom, a pommy.

Adjective

• Of a colour like that of the pulp or skin of a pomegranate fruit; dark red or orange-red.

Origin

• The noun is derived from Middle English pome-garnet, pome-garnete, pome garnate, pome granat, pome-granate, from Anglo-Norman pome gernate, pomme gernette, Middle French pomme granade, pomme granate, pomme grenade, and Old French pome grenade, pome grenate, pomme grenate (modern French grenade), probably from Italian pomogranato, pomo granato (though apparently first attested later), and then either:
• from Italian pomo + Latin mālum grānātum, mālogrānātum; or
• The adjective is derived from the noun.