pera (Spanish)
Where does "pera" come from?
The Spanish word 'pera' comes from the Latin 'pirum', which originally referred to a pear fruit and likely traces back to a Mediterranean substrate or the Proto-Indo-European root 'peys-', meaning to crush. In Vulgar Latin, the plural 'pira' was reanalyzed as a feminine singular noun, eventually evolving into the Old Spanish 'pera'. Today, in addition to its fruit meaning, the word is used in Spanish to describe objects shaped like a pear, such as a speed bag or a chin.
Full etymology tree
- pera (Spanish), 'pear'
- inherited pera (Old Spanish)
- derived *pira (Latin), 'nominative/accusative/vocative plural of pirum'
- derived pirum (Latin), 'a pear (fruit)'
- borrowed ἄπιον (ápion) (Ancient Greek), 'pear'
- derived *peys- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to grind, to crush'
- derived pirum (Latin), 'a pear (fruit)'
- derived *pira (Latin), 'nominative/accusative/vocative plural of pirum'
- inherited pera (Old Spanish)
Ancestors
- pira (Latin)
- pirum (Latin)
Descendants and derived words
- béela (Jicarilla)
- del año de la pera (Spanish)
- de uvas a peras (Spanish)
- más sano que una pera (Spanish)
- partir peras (Spanish)
- pedir peras al olmo (Spanish)
- pera de agua (Spanish)
- peras y manzanas (Spanish)
- perilla (Spanish)
- sumar peras con manzanas (Spanish)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris