Lemon

Closely related to each other as species, the lemon and the lime also derive their names from the same source: the Arabic limah, meaning lime. This Arabic word entered French as lime, which was then adopted by English in the early seventeenth century. Limah also, however, gave rise to another Arabic word, limun, which the Arabs invented as a name for a slightly different citrus fruit. Limun was borrowed by Medieval French as limon, which English adopted in the early fifteenth century as lemon. In French, the word limon persists in limonade, a beverage made from lemons, but for the most part the French have replaced the word limon with the word citron. The French derived this citron by taking citrus—the Latin name of another sort of sour fruit—and changing its spelling to citron to make its ending resemble that of limon. In the early sixteenth century, English borrowed the French citron as the name for a fruit that resembles, but is distinct from, both the lemon and the lime. To complicate things further, the French refer to this same fruit—the English citron—as the cedrat. All these sour fruits are high in vitamin C and thus British sailors once ate them on long voyages to avoid getting scurvy; when these British sailors voyaged to North America or Australia, they were called lime-eaters, which became, in the late nineteenth century, the derogatory term limey.

Fruit of the tree Citrus limon, containing citric acid. Lemons contain enough vitamin C to prevent or treat scurvy. Lemon may be used in place of vinegar, spices, and aromatic substances by those who cannot use such items.