מִשְׁמֵשׁ

The word "מִשְׁמֵשׁ" (mishmesh) is first mentioned in Hebrew in Nathan HaMe'ati's translation of Avicenna's "Canon of Medicine," which he composed in Rome in the 13th century. Nevertheless, the word entered active use in Hebrew only at the end of the 19th century, when pioneers of Hebrew agriculture adopted the name of the tree from their Arab neighbors. In Arabic, the fruit is called "مِشْمِش" (mishmish). The origin of the word in Arabic is disputed: some claim that it is derived from the Arabic word "مُشْمِس" (mushmis) meaning "sunny," perhaps due to its orange-yellow color reminiscent of the sun, but it is more likely that it is a corruption of the Syriac Aramaic word "כְּמִשְׁמִשָׁא" (kmishmisha), which means "dried apricot." The root k-m-sh, from which the Aramaic word is derived, indicates dryness also in Hebrew, and it appears in the verse "Is it not true that as soon as it is planted, its field withers, its growth withers" (Isaiah 17:6). The dried fruit was important in ancient trade, and therefore the name of the dried fruit came to denote also the fresh fruit. The apricot probably reached the Middle East from China via Central Asia, and was already known in ancient Egypt and in the Mediterranean countries during the Roman period.