Olives

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of edible fruit that varies in color from green to black and is frequently utilized in cooking and oil extraction
2. A drupaceous fruit recognized for its culinary versatility and often processed into oil or served in dishes
3. The small, oval fruit that grows on olive trees and is commonly used in Mediterranean cuisine and to produce oil

Etymology: The word "olives" is simply the plural of "olive," so the story lies in the singular. English borrowed the fruit's name from Old French "olive," which came from Latin "oliva." Latin itself took the word from a Mediterranean language that predates Greek, and the Greek "elaia" was probably a close relative of it. Older speakers of English had their own name for the fruit, "eleberge," which literally meant "oil berry," a name that made sense for a fruit valued above all for the oil pressed from it. The English word arrived in the Middle English period, when it was borrowed from French, and it gradually displaced that native name. The Latin "oliva" also gave rise to "oil" itself, so olive and oil are doublets, two English words descended from the same ancestor by different routes.