pomegranate

Meaning

Noun

1. 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.
2. The shrub or small tree that bears the fruit.
3. A dark red or orange-red colour, like that of the pulp or skin of a pomegranate fruit.
4. (Australia, colloquial, derogatory, obsolete) A person of British descent, especially one who has (recently) immigrated to Australia; a pom, a pommy.

Adj

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

Synonyms

pomegranate tree

Punica granatum

grenade

grenadine

apple of Grenada

Translations

granada

grenade

Granatapfel

granaatappel

romã

nar

ρόδι

melograno

melagrana

hinar

grenadier

granado

magrana

ροδιά

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɒmɪ(ˌ)ɡɹænɪt/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pome-garnet

Cognate with French: grenade

In summary

The noun is derived from Middle English pome-garnet, pome-garnete, pome garnate, pome granat, pome-granate (“pomegranate fruit; pomegranate tree; pomegranate seeds (?)”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman pome gernate, pomme gernette, Middle French pomme granade, pomme granate, pomme grenade, and Old French pome grenade, pome grenate, pomme grenate [and other forms] (modern French grenade), probably from Italian pomogranato, pomo granato (though apparently first attested later), and then either:
* from Italian pomo (“fruit, pome; apple”) + Latin (mālum) grānātum, (mālo)grānātum (“pomegranate”); or
* directly from Medieval Latin pōmum garnātum, pōmum grānātum (“pomegranate”), from Latin pōmum (“fruit; fruit tree”) + grānātum (“pomegranate”). Pōmum is possibly ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂po-h₁ém-os (“taken off”) (in the sense of being picked off a plant), from *h₂epó (“away; off”) + *h₁em- (“to distribute; to take”); while grānātum is derived from grānātus (“having many grains or seeds”), from grānum (“grain, seed, small kernel”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- (“to mature, grow old”) + *-nós (suffix forming verbal adjectives)) + -ātus (suffix forming adjectives indicating the possession of a quality or thing from nouns).
The adjective is derived from the noun.