English
grenade
Grenade comes from French grenade ‘pomegranate’, from Old French grenate in pomme grenate, ultimately from Medieval Latin pōmum ‘apple’ + grānātum ‘having grains’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānātum1‘having grains’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500pōmum grānātum1‘seeded fruit’
- Italianc. 1300–presentpom granat1
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400pomme grenate1‘pomegranate’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400grenate1‘pomegranate’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgrenade1‘pomegranate’
- Englishearliest quotation 2001grenade1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English grenade
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2001, Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, Island Victory: The Battle of Kwajalein Atoll: “Some of the infantry got pinned down by it,…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgrānātumWiktionary, English grenade‘having grains’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500pōmum grānātumWiktionary, English grenade‘seeded fruit’
- Italianc. 1300–presentpom granatWiktionary, English grenade
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400pomme grenateWiktionary, English grenade‘pomegranate’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400grenateWiktionary, English grenade‘pomegranate’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentgrenadeWiktionary, English grenade‘pomegranate’
- Englishearliest quotation 2001grenadeWiktionary, English grenade. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2001, Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, Island Victory: The Battle of Kwajalein Atoll: “Some of the infantry got pinned down by it,…”
A compound of pōmum ‘apple’ + grānātum ‘having grains’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- ‘to take’
Proto-Indo-European *h₂po-h₁ém-os
Proto-Italic *poomos ‘fruit’
Medieval Latin pōmum ‘apple’
Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm ‘grain’
Proto-Italic *grānom ‘grain’
Latin grānum ‘grain, seed’
Latin grānātus ‘having many seeds’
Medieval Latin grānātum ‘having grains’
The story
The -d developed in French under influence of Spanish granada.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with grenade, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Old French grenate ‘pomegranate (fruit)’
- garnet ← gernet
Explore everything descended from grānātum →
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Today it means
noun A small explosive device, designed to be thrown by hand or launched using a rifle, grenade launcher, or rocket.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “grenade”. 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 / Latin grānātum / grenade