Bertrand Russell on Apricots (1935)

The History of the word "Apricot"

The word originally entered English as an adaptation of the Portuguese albricoque or Spanish albaricoque.

However, it was subsequently changed to match the related French word abricot (where the 't' is silent).

It is also useful to compare this to the Italian albercocca or albicocca and the Old Spanish albarcoque.

These all stem from the Spanish-Arabic al-borcoque, which itself comes from the Arabic al-burqūq (literally "the" + "birqūq").

This Arabic term was adapted from Greek, appearing in the writings of Dioscorides around the year 100 AD.

The Greek word was probably adapted from the Latin præcoquum, a variant of præcox (plural præcocia), which translates to "early-ripe" or "ripe in summer."

In earlier Roman times, the fruit was actually called the "Armenian plum" or "Armenian apple."

By around the year 350, the writer Palladius was using both terms, referring to them as "Armenian or early-ripe" fruits.

The reason we use a "p" in English (apricot) instead of a "b" (abricot) is likely due to a mistake in etymology.

In 1617, the scholar Minsheu explained the name as if it meant in aprico coctus, or "cooked in a sunny place."

This "sunny" explanation stuck, even though it was technically incorrect!