Plum and Prune Are the Same Word
A plum is a soft stone fruit. Dried, it takes a name that is the same word in disguise.
A plum is a soft stone fruit, and figuratively something highly desirable, as in a plum job. *Plum* and *prune* descend from the same Latin word *prunum*: English took it through Germanic as *plum* and again through French as *prune*, so a dried plum is literally a plum by another route. Growers exploited the split in the 2000s by relabelling prunes as dried plums. The desirable sense comes from plums being the best bits in a pudding, the ones you hoped to find.
- A stone fruit. *A ripe plum.*
- Something desirable. *A plum job.*
- A deep purple. *Plum-coloured.*
- Prune — the same word. *A prune.*
- Latin — *prunum*. *The root.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | plum | A plum. |
| Plural | plums | Plums. |
| Adjective | plum | A plum job. |
| Related | prune | A prune. |
| Latin | prunum | A plum. |
- The plums were ripe.Fruit.
- He landed a plum role.Figurative.
- Prune is the same word.Etymology.
Why plum pudding has no plums
- Plum once meant any dried fruit, especially raisins
- Plum pudding and plum cake were made with raisins
- Little Jack Horner's plum was probably a raisin too
- The word narrowed to the fresh fruit later
- The recipes kept the older name
Old English *plume*, from Latin *prunum*; *prune* is the same word borrowed later through French.
Are plums and prunes the same fruit?
Yes. A prune is a dried plum, and the two words descend from the same Latin source by different routes.
Why does plum pudding contain no plums?
Because plum once meant any dried fruit, especially raisins. The recipe kept the old name after the word narrowed.