apricot
UK /ˈeɪ.pɹɪ.kɒt/ · US /ˈeɪ.pɹɪ.kɑt/ noun, adjective
Forms apricots abricock apricock
- noun A round sweet and juicy stone fruit, resembling peach or plum in taste, with a yellow-orange flesh, lightly fuzzy skin and a large seed inside. “pickled apricots”
- noun The apricot tree, Prunus armeniaca.
- noun A pale yellow-orange colour, like that of an apricot fruit.
- noun A dog with an orange-coloured coat.
- noun (sniper slang) The junction of the brain and brain stem on a target, used as an aiming point to ensure a one-shot kill.
- noun (slang, UK, Australia, dated, usually in the plural) A testicle.
- adjective Of a pale yellowish-orange colour, like that of an apricot.
Synonyms
Etymology
Alteration of apricock (with influence from French abricot), itself an alteration of abrecock (with influence from Latin apricum (“sunny place”)), from dialectal Catalan abrecoc, abricoc, variants of standard albercoc, from Arabic الْبَرْقُوق (al-barqūq, “plums”), from Byzantine Greek βερικοκκία (berikokkía, “apricot tree”), from Ancient Greek πραικόκιον (praikókion), from Late Latin (persica) praecocia (literally “(peaches) which ripen early”), (mālum) praecoquum (literally “(apple) which ripens early”). Doublet of precocious.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A fruit allied to the plum, of an orange color, oval shape, and delicious taste; also, the tree (Prunus Armeniaca of Linnæus) which bears this fruit. By cultivation it has been introduced throughout the temperate zone.
Etymology [OE. apricock, abricot, F. abricot, fr. Sp. albaricoque or Pg. albricoque, fr. Ar. albirq, al-burq. Though the E. and F. form abricot is derived from the Arabic through the Spanish, yet the Arabic word itself was formed from the Gr. praecoquus, praecox, early ripe. The older E. form apricock was prob. taken direct from Pg. See Precocious, Cook.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “apricot”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details