Nectarin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A smooth-skinned fruit resembling a peach, with a sweet juicy flesh and a single large stone at its centre
2. The round, fuzzless stone fruit that looks like a peach but has a smooth, glossy skin and sweet yellow flesh
3. A type of peach bearing a bright, hairless skin and fragrant, succulent flesh around a central pit

Etymology: The nectarine is a fruit whose name is a compound of "nectar", the drink of the Greek gods, and the Latinate ending "-ine". The fruit itself is a variety of peach, and its smooth skin is the key to its story: the nectarine is the same species as the peach (Prunus persica), and the smooth skin is caused by a recessive gene, so nectarines can appear on the same tree as fuzzy peaches. The name therefore flatters the fruit with divine sweetness while describing a mere variant. English-speaking writers began using "nectarine" in the 1600s, and the form "nectarine" in the sense of this fruit is recorded from the late 17th century. The "-ine" suffix, borrowed from Latin "-inus" through French, often marks something belonging to or resembling the base word, so the fruit's name amounts to "nectar-like" or "of the nectar kind."