Etymograph

English

apple

Apple comes from Middle English appel ‘malus domestica fruit or tree, apple’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ébōl1disputed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aplaz1‘apple’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*applu1‘apple’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150æppel1‘apple’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500appel1‘apple; apple tree’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1555apple1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English apple
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1555, Gonzalus Ferdinandus Ouiedus [i.e., Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]: “The apples wherewith the Indian Canibales inueneme theyr arrowes,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ébōlWiktionary, English appledisputed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aplazWiktionary, English apple‘apple’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*appluWiktionary, English apple‘apple’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150æppelWiktionary, English apple‘apple’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500appelWiktionary, English apple‘apple; apple tree’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1555appleWiktionary, English apple. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1555, Gonzalus Ferdinandus Ouiedus [i.e., Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]: “The apples wherewith the Indian Canibales inueneme theyr arrowes,…”

The story

The noun is derived from Middle English appel (‘Malus domestica fruit or tree, apple; any type of fruit, nut, or tuber; tree bearing fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; (Christianity) forbidden fruit in Eden’), from Old English æppel (‘apple; any type of fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; eyeball’), from Proto-West Germanic *applu (‘apple; any type of fruit’), from Proto-Germanic *aplaz (‘apple; any type of fruit’), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl, *h₂ébl̥ (‘apple’). As regards noun sense 1.4 (‘forbidden fruit’), the type of fruit eaten by Adam and Eve is not identified in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It may have come to be identified with the apple because of the similarity between Latin mālum (‘apple’) and malum (‘evil; misery, torment; wrongdoing’). The inheritance from Germanic is clear, but the etymology of the word beyond that point is uncertain and disputed.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with apple, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl

  • maple ← mapel ← *mapul ← *mapul ← *mapulaz

2 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun The fruit of the tree Malus domestica, chiefly with a green, red, or yellow skin, cultivated in temperate climates for cidermaking, cooking, and eating.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “apple”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl / apple