Etymology: < Anglo-Norman pume, pomme, pome, poume, pumme and Middle French, French pomme apple (c1100 in Anglo-Norman as pume ), fruit comparable to an apple (c1200 in pume de pin : see pineapple n.), kind of spherical object (1260 of a copper container designed to warm the hands), container for scent (earliest in pome d'ambre (a1278; compare pomander n.)), royal orb (a1377), heart of a cabbage (in pomme de chou (c1393)) < an unattested post-classical Latin *poma , alteration (arising from reinterpretation of the neuter plural as feminine singular) of classical Latin pōmum fruit, in post-classical Latin also apple (see pomum n.), ball, orb (1245, 1482 in British sources). Perhaps partly also (especially in sense 2) < Old French, Middle French pon, pom ornamental knob, apple, royal orb (a1180 as pun , second half of the 12th cent. in a text with some Anglo-Norman characteristics as pom ; chiefly northern in Middle French; < classical Latin pōmum (see above)); compare also Anglo-Norman punt and Old French pont pommel (c1100 in Anglo-Norman), and also pommel n.¹Compare Old Occitan poma (c1070; Occitan poma ), Catalan poma (13th cent.), Spanish poma (a1250; now rare or obsolete in sense ‘apple’), Italian †poma (a1294). With Old French, Middle French pon , pom compare Old Occitan pom (a1173; Occitan pom ), Catalan pom (c1200), Spanish pomo (a1385), Portuguese pomo (14th cent.), Italian pomo (10th cent. or earlier; also as pome ). In β forms with excrescent p . In sense 1b after post-classical Latin pomum pomum n. With heraldic use (see sense 2) compare French pomme (1581 in Middle French). In sense 3 apparently after pomedorry n., although compare also Middle French pommeaulx meatballs (c1393 in an apparently isolated use; compare pommel n.¹). Compare pome-garnez n. With sense 4 compare earlier pomander n.

Etymology: Representing a regional or colloquial pronunciation of poem n.

Etymology: < pome n.¹, after French pommer (1611; earlier as pommé, adjective (c1393)).