apricot (English)

Where does "apricot" come from?

The word apricot has a remarkably long journey across languages, originating as Late Latin '(persica) praecocia' meaning '(peaches) which ripen early'[1]. This traveled into Ancient Greek as 'πραικόκιον'[1], passed through Byzantine Greek and into Arabic as 'الْبَرْقُوق'[1] meaning 'plums', and then entered Catalan as 'abrecoc'[1]. From there, it moved into English via forms like 'abrecock' and 'apricock', eventually yielding 'apricot' under influence from French 'abricot'[1]. The term is ultimately connected to Proto-Indo-European roots meaning 'before'[3].

Open questions

The details of the relation between the Greek forms and their phonetic development are considered unclear. [2]

Full etymology tree

apricot (English), 'Of a pale yellowish-orange colour, like that of an apricot.'
- derived apricock (English), 'Archaic form of apricot.'
  - derived abrecock (English), 'Obsolete form of apricot.'
    - derived abrecoc (Catalan), 'alternative form of albercoc'
      - derived albercoc (Catalan), 'apricot'
        derived اَلْبَرْقُوق (al-barqūq) (Arabic)
        derived βερικοκκία (berikokkía) (Ancient Greek), 'apricot tree'
        derived πραικόκιον (praikókion) (Ancient Greek), 'apricot'
        borrowed praecoquum (Latin), 'inflection of praecoquus:'
        derived praecox (Latin), 'ripe before its time; premature'
    - influence apricum (Latin), 'inflection of aprīcus:'
- influence abricot (French), 'apricot (fruit)'

Ancestors

*pekʷ- (Proto-Indo-European)
*preh₂- (Proto-Indo-European)
abrecoc (Catalan)
πραικόκιον (Ancient Greek)

Cognates and doublets

precocious (English)
abricot (French)
apricum (Latin)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris