lemon的词源

英文词源

lemon: lemon: see lime
lemon (n.1): type of citrus fruit, c. 1400, lymon, from Old French limon "citrus fruit" (12c.), via Provençal or Italian from Arabic laimun, from Persian limu(n), generic terms for citrus fruits (compare lime (n.2)); cognate with Sanskrit nimbu "the lime." Slang meaning "a Quaalude" is 1960s, from Lemmon, name of a pharmaceutical company that once manufactured the drug.
lemon (n.2): "worthless thing," 1909, American English slang; from lemon (n.1), perhaps via criminal slang sense of "a person who is a loser, a simpleton," which is perhaps from the notion of someone a sharper can "suck the juice out of." A pool hall hustle was called a lemon game (1908); while to hand someone a lemon was British slang (1906) for "to pass off a sub-standard article as a good one." Or it simply may be a metaphor for something which leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

来自波斯语limun,桔子，柠檬，词源同lime.

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：lemon 词源，lemon 含义。

柠檬最早产自印度或中国西南和緬甸西南部，在梵语中称为nimbu，在古代中国被称为黎檬。英语中表示“柠檬”的单词lemon,应该是源自梵语nimbu，经由波斯语、阿拉伯语、意大利语和法语，一路传入英语，演变成英语单词lemon和lime。