greengage
/ˈɡɹiːnɡeɪd͡ʒ/
greengage noun: a plum cultivar with greenish-yellow flesh and skin, Prunus domestica subsp. italica var. claudiana.
Noun
greengage (plural greengages)
- A plum cultivar with greenish-yellow flesh and skin, Prunus domestica subsp. italica var. claudiana.
- The apricot rarely produces any fruit, except in a few places, and then very scantily. The greengage plum is nearly equally unproductive.1834, John Forbes, “Sketch of the Medical Topography of the Hundred of Penwith”, in Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2, page 66
- Just where the horse trams trundled across the market was a row of fruit stalls, with fruit blazing in the sun—apples and piles of reddish oranges, small greengage plums and bananas.1913, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 5, in Sons and Lovers
- Synonyms:
- greengage plum
greengage meaning in Tamil, Arabic and Persian
greengage in Tamil
- இது பழவகைகளுள் ஒன்றாகும்
greengage in Arabic
- a plum with greenish-yellow flesh and skin
- جَانَرِك jānarik
greengage in Persian
- a plum with greenish-yellow flesh and skin
- گوجه سبز gowje sabz
Synonyms of greengage
Forms of greengage
| plural | greengages |
|---|---|
| alternative form | green-gage |
| alternative form | green gage |
| alternative form | green-gedge |
Origin of greengage
By surface analysis, green + gage. See alternative etymology below, as this is incorrect: the etymology for gage is a back-formation from greengage. alternative etymology The legend goes that Sir William Gage, 2nd Baronet of Hengrave, (c. 1656–1727), had a shipment of plums from France, in which the labels of the reine-claude got lost, by which reason his gardener called it after his master. Horticulturist Peter Collinson reports in his notes edited by L. W. Dillwyn in 1843, page 60: I was on a visit to Sir William Gage, at Hengrave, near Bury; he was then near 70; he told me that he first brought over, from France, the Grosse reine Claude, and introduced it into England, and in compliment to him the Plum was called the Green Gage; this was about the year 1725. Contrary to the common story however here the French name is known to the baronet, and it could consequentially completely be a running joke, in that he exploited a coincidental likeness of his name to a plant name to become part of history. An older term denoting the very same plum cultivar, which ultimately derives from the Near East, via the Sublime Porte under Kanuni Süleyman, is found in Persian گوجه سبز (gowje sabz)
Words formed from greengage
Phrases with greengage
Questions about greengage
- What does greengage mean?
- Greengage means a plum cultivar with greenish-yellow flesh and skin, Prunus domestica subsp. italica var. claudiana.
- What is greengage in Tamil?
- Greengage in Tamil is இது பழவகைகளுள் ஒன்றாகும். See Greengage meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is greengage?
- Greengage is a noun.
- How do you pronounce greengage?
- Greengage is pronounced /ˈɡɹiːnɡeɪd͡ʒ/.
- What is the plural of greengage?
- The plural of greengage is greengages.
Words near greengage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: greengage (page history and authors); greengage (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-greengage.wav.
Cite this entry: “greengage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/greengage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.