2627: grenade & pomegranate Feb 24, 2022

Although the only thing explosive about a pomegranate would be if its seeds are saturated with juice, the word 'grenade' comes from the same root as 'pomegranate'. The word is instead a reference to its shape, with a round body and a protruding head. Although the word is French, the spelling with a D by the end instead of a T is influenced from the Spanish 'granada'. This has nothing to do with the Spanish city 'Granada', whose name comes from Arabic.

2398: pomegranate Jul 13, 2021

Pomegranate is pretty clearly involving the root of the French 'pomme' (Latin 'pomum') meaning 'apple' or more accurately 'fruit' but it is less clear about the second element. Some say this is from the Latin 'granatum' meaning 'seeds' from the root of *gre-no- (grain) but this is not the only theory. Part of the difficulty there is that the word used to be 'poumgarnet' and the '-gra-' came to be through metathesis, so to go on this etymology which does certainly have some historic backing would require two rounds of metathesis on the same term. Still, names including the Latin 'mālum grānātum' (seeded apple) and mālum Punicum (Punic apple) are attested historically, so this may just be so. The scientific name is Punica granatum, in line somewhat with the Roman naming.