Pear – a fruit that bruises easily

A familiar shape, though its name has travelled far. Pear came into English from Old English pere, part of a family of words that spread through Europe with the fruit itself. The Latin pirum lies behind almost all of them—becoming poire in French, pera in Italian, pêra in Portuguese, and Birne in German.

Scholars once thought Latin pirum had been borrowed from a lost Mediterranean language, but newer research points instead to an older Indo-European root peys- meaning ‘to crush or crumble’. It fits the fruit: soft, easily bruised, and known for its tender flesh.

The pear tree has long been part of Britain’s landscape. Romans cultivated new varieties, monasteries tended orchards, and the small wild pear, Pyrus cordata, still survives in a few southern woods. The language, like the tree, has taken root and spread.