earthapple
earthapple noun: a Jerusalem artichoke (the tuber of Helianthus tuberosus); the plant that produces it.
Noun
earthapple (plural earthapples)
- A Jerusalem artichoke (the tuber of Helianthus tuberosus); the plant that produces it.
- Synonyms:
- ground pear, sunchoke, more at Jerusalem artichoke
- A potato; the plant that produces it.
- The most probable account I have been able to collect is, that a vessel of Sir Walter Raleigh's, returning from Guiana, put into the west of Ireland in distress, having on board some potatoes which they called earth-apples.1984, Thomas Jefferson, Merrill D. Peterson, Jefferson: Writings
- It was supper-time on board the Stormchaser, and the sky pirates were all seated round a longbench tucking into a meal of baked snowbird and earthapple mash.2009, Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell, Edge Chronicles: Stormchaser
- Synonyms:
- groundapple, ground pear, more at potato
- The fruit of the mandrake (Mandragora officinarum); the plant itself.
- Any of various tubers or the tuberous plants that produce them, especially sowbread (genus Cyclamen).
Examples of earthapple in a sentence
- He finished carefully arranging a plate of fresh prawns, earthapples, and kale he'd bought special for Captain Falcon in Bangalang.2009, Linda F. Selzer, Charles Johnson in Context:
- There were roots of some sort, also, baking like earthapples near the fire, and a basket of late berries, most of them bitter.2014, Nancy Springer, Madbond:
Synonyms of earthapple
- ground pear
- sunchoke
- more at Jerusalem artichoke
- groundapple
- more at potato
Forms of earthapple
| plural | earthapples |
|---|---|
| alternative form | earth-apple |
| alternative form | earth apple |
Origin of earthapple
From earlier erth-apple (“tuberous root of the sowbread", also "tomato-like fruit of the mandrake”), from Middle English *erth-appel, from Old English eorþæppel (“cucumber”, literally “earth or ground-apple”), from Proto-West Germanic *erþapplu (the name of various types of fruits which grow on or below the ground; gourd, melon, squash), equivalent to earth + apple. The modern sense of "potato" is a calque of Dutch aardappel (“potato”). Compare also German Erdapfel, French pomme de terre.
Questions about earthapple
- What does earthapple mean?
- Earthapple means a Jerusalem artichoke (the tuber of Helianthus tuberosus); the plant that produces it.
- How do you use earthapple in a sentence?
- He finished carefully arranging a plate of fresh prawns, earthapples, and kale he'd bought special for Captain Falcon in Bangalang.
- What part of speech is earthapple?
- Earthapple is a noun.
- What is the plural of earthapple?
- The plural of earthapple is earthapples.
Words near earthapple in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: earthapple (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “earthapple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/earthapple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.