Pomegranates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A round fruit characterized by a hard shell and filled with juicy seeds, commonly utilized in various culinary dishes and health-oriented products
2. This fruit, typically red or yellow, is recognized for its thick skin and numerous seeds, often incorporated in gastronomy and beverages
3. A spherical fruit with a robust outer layer enclosing clusters of juicy seeds that are edible and often eaten raw or used in cooking

Etymology: "Pomegranate" is a compound built from "pome," meaning fruit, and "garnet," a word that echoes the fruit's seeds. Its Latin ancestor was "pomum granatum," literally "seeded fruit," where "granatum" comes from "granum," meaning grain or seed. The Latin adjective "granatus" meant "having many grains or seeds," so the fruit was named for its distinctive crowded kernels. English first borrowed the name in Middle English through Anglo-Norman and Old French forms such as "pomme grenade," and the French form "grenade" later gave the fruit's name to the explosive device, which was named after the pomegranate's resemblance to a seed-filled shell. Before the French and Latin forms arrived, Old English had its own name for the fruit, "æppelcyrnel," literally "apple kernel," which was itself a translation of the Latin term, though the borrowed form eventually displaced it. The plural "pomegranates" simply takes the regular English "-s" ending, applied to the noun "pomegranate."