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Origin and history of citrus

citrus(adj.)

any tree of the genus Citrus, or its fruit, 1825, from the Modern Latin genus name, from Latin citrus "citron tree," the name of an African tree with aromatic wood and lemon-like fruit, the first citrus fruit to become available in the West. The name, like the tree, is probably of Asiatic origin [OED] or from a lost non-IE Mediterranean language [de Vaan]. But Klein and others trace it to Greek kedros "cedar," perhaps via Etruscan (a suggested by the change of -dr- to -tr-).

Entries linking to citrus

"pertaining to or derived from citrons or lemons," 1800, from Modern Latin citricum (in acidum citricum "citric acid," discovered by German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1784); see citrus + -ic. The classical adjective was citreus.

"lemon-colored, yellow or greenish-yellow," late 14c., from French citrin, from Latin citrus (see citrus). From 1879 as a color name.

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Trends of citrus

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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