bergamote

French

Etymology

From Italian bergamotta, deemed a corruption of Ottoman Turkish بك آرمودی (beg armudu, literally “a lord's pear”), denoting originally a fattish kind of pear, whereafter the European word developed the sense of a fruit of a certain citrus cultivar in the late 17th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛʁ.ɡa.mɔt/

Noun

bergamote f (plural bergamotes)

1. bergamot, a pear cultivar
2. bergamot, a citrus cultivar
3. the scent of such a citrus used in perfumery
4. a bonbon treated with such a perfume

Descendants

• → English: bergamot
• → Ottoman Turkish: برعموت (bergamot)

  Turkish: bergamot

Further reading

• Meyer, Gustav (1893) “Türkische Studien. I. Die griechischen und romanischen Bestandtheile im Wortschatze des Osmanisch-Türkischen”, in Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (in German), volume 128, Wien: In Commission bei F. Tempsky, page 28
• “bergamote”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.