appel (Middle English)

Where does "appel" come from?

The Middle English 'appel', meaning 'fruit' or 'ball', descends from the Old English 'æppel'[1][2]. This term traces back through Proto-West Germanic 'applu'[1][5] and Proto-Germanic 'aplaz'[1][3] to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form '*h₂ébōl'[1][2][6]. The history of this word suggests it may have entered the Indo-European speech continuum after the dissolution of the parent language, as it is limited to Western Indo-European tongues and contains the rare phoneme 'b'[4].

Open questions

The Proto-Indo-European form is reconstructed and may not have belonged to the oldest layer of the language, potentially entering through a wanderwort or substrate origin. [4]
The connection between the word and various Semitic roots or Afro-Asiatic forms remains a subject of theoretical and often unsubstantiated speculation. [4]
Alternative reconstructions involving Hittite or Proto-Kartvelian cognates remain debated and lack universal scholarly consensus. [4]

Full etymology tree

appel (Middle English), 'fruit, nut'
- inherited æppel (Old English), 'apple'
  - inherited *applu (Proto-West Germanic), 'fruit'
    - inherited *aplaz (Proto-Germanic), 'apple, fruit'
      - inherited *h₂ébōl (Proto-Indo-European), 'apple'

Ancestors

æppel (Old English)
*applu (Proto-West Germanic)
*aplaz (Proto-Germanic)
*h₂ébōl (Proto-Indo-European)

Descendants and derived words

apple (English)
apple (English)
appeltre (Middle English)
aipple (Scots)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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