love apple
- a tropical, tender plant, Solanum aculeatissimum, of the nightshade family, having prickly leaves, clusters of large, star-shaped white flowers, and red, tomatolike fruit.
- Archaic. the tomato.
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Origin of love apple
1570–80; compare French pomme d'amour, German Liebesapfel
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for love apple
Historical Examples
It was first used for ornamental purposes and was called "love-apple."
Human Foods and Their Nutritive ValueHarry Snyder
All swallow the love-apple bait presented by some wicked genius of the devil, who sports with the affections of mankind.
The Court of CacusAlexander Leighton
So far was he concern'd in looking after that Love-apple, or Night-shadow, for the cure of his own burning distemper.
love apple
- an archaic name for tomato
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for love apple
n.
"tomato," 1570s, corresponding to French pomme d'amour, German liebesapfel, but the reason for the term remains obscure. One guess is that it is a corruption of Italian pomo de'Mori or Spanish pome dei Moro, literally "Moorish apple."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper