pear

Meaning

1. An edible fruit produced by the pear tree, similar to an apple but typically elongated towards the stem.
2. A type of fruit tree (Pyrus communis).
3. The wood of the pear tree (pearwood, pear wood).
4. Choke pear (a torture device).
5. (Jamaica) avocado, alligator pear
6. A desaturated chartreuse yellow colour, like that of a pear.

Synonyms

pear tree

fruit

pear-tree

European pear

Pyrus communis

Asian pear

seckel

pippin

plum

russet

gourd

seckel pear

Translations

Birne

🍐

pera

🍐

pera

🍐

poire

🍐

peer

🍐

αχλάδι

pêra

armut

🍐

pera

🍐

كمثرى

🍐

poirier

hirmî

🍐

pirum

🍐

karçîn

🍐

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pɛə/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pere

Inherited from Old English: pere

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Peere

Cognate with Dutch: peer

Cognate with Danish: pære

Cognate with French: poire

Cognate with German: Birne

Cognate with Icelandic: pera

Cognate with Swedish: päron

In summary

From Middle English pere, from Old English pere, from Proto-West Germanic *peru, from Vulgar Latin pira, originally the plural of Latin pirum but reconstrued as a feminine singular, ultimately a loanword from an unknown Mediterranean substrate source.
Cognate with Scots peer (“pear”), Saterland Frisian Peere, Pere (“pear”), West Frisian par (“pear”), Dutch peer (“pear”), Danish, Greenlandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk pære (“pear”), Faroese, Icelandic pera (“pear”), Swedish päron (“pear”), German Birne (“pear”), Luxembourgish Bier, Bir (“pear”), Vilamovian biyn (“pear”), Yiddish באַר (bar, “pear”), French poire (“pear”).