earth applen.

Etymology: Cognate with or formed similarly to Middle Dutch erdappel cyclamen (Dutch aardappel cyclamen, now only in sense ‘potato’ (1758)), Middle Low German ērtappel cyclamen, kind of cucumber or melon, also occasionally denoting other plants, Old High German erdaphul kind of cucumber or melon, cyclamen, also occasionally denoting other plants (Middle High German ertaphel fruit of the mandrake, German Erdapfel potato (c1660 in this sense, now regional (southern, Swiss, and Austrian)) < the Germanic base of earth n.¹ + the Germanic base of apple n., so called partly (in senses 1 and 2) on account of its fruit, which grow close to the ground, and partly (in senses 3 and 4) on account of the shape of the plant's tubers. Compare classical Latin mālum terrae the plant Aristolochia, birthwort, the fruit of the mandrake plant, in post-classical Latin also cyclamen (4th cent.), mandrake (a636 in Isidore), Anglo-Norman pume de terre birthwort, and Old French, Middle French pomme de terre root of the cyclamen (15th cent.), root of the mandrake (1488), French pomme de terre potato (1750). Compare earthnut n.In senses 1 and 3 probably after Latin. Sense 2 and parallel senses in several early Germanic languages (each translating either classical Latin cucumis cucumber n. or pepōn kind of melon: see pepon n.) probably all go back to the same biblical passage (translated in quot. OE at sense 2), a list of vegetables, which in the Vulgate appears as follows: in mentem veniunt cucumeres, et pepones, porrique, et caepe, et allia (Numbers 11:5, with reference to Egypt). In sense 4 partly after French pomme de terre, and partly after Dutch aardappel.