[Sca-cooks] Re: plums in plum pudding

[Terry Decker]

Prunes are several varieties of plums, and modernly, particular hybrids
developed for drying.

"Prunus" (or "prunum") is the Latin for plum, as well as being scientific
name for the genera of plums.  It appears in a number of forms in European
languages.  Plum appears to be a derivative of the Latin neuter plural,
"pruna," apparently entering English from Old Low German.  Plum and prune
are interchangable until late in SCA period.

The dried fruit was originally referred to as "dried plums" or "drie prunis"
(from a 14th Century reference).  By the 15th or 16th Century, prune was
being used to refer to the dried fruit.

Curiously, prune was also used to refer to raisins in Victoria's day.

Bear


>Makes sense, but I wonder at what point "prune" came to mean "dried
>plum", when it used to mean, to English-speakers, a variety of plum
>that frequently comes to us imported in dried form.
>
>Adamantius