Pear
/pɛr/noun
A sweet, edible fruit with a rounded bottom and tapering top, or the tree that produces it.
Did you know?English pear comes through Latin and Greek from a pre-Latin source, and the same ancient root also gave us the word for the pear tree in several European languages, showing how a humble fruit name can survive millennia.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*per-
“A proposed ancient root meaning related to producing or bearing fruit, though the exact prehistory of pear is uncertain.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
ápios
“A pear or pear tree.”
Latin
Latin
pirum
“A pear.”
Old French
Old French
pere
“A pear.”
Middle English
English
pere
“A pear.”
Modern English
English
pear
“The familiar fruit and tree.”