tadama

From ta' Adam (“of Adam”), from underlying *tuffieħa ta' Adam (literally “Adam’s apple”), referring to the fruit of the forbidden tree in paradise. Compare the same in archaic German Paradiesapfel (literally “paradise apple”), whence Austrian German Paradeiser (“tomato”) and equivalent forms in several eastern European languages. The phonetic similarity with English tomato, Spanish tomate is probably coincidental. The Maltese might of course be a folk-etymological alteration of the Spanish word, but the clearly unrelated forms in other languages make this seem less likely. Compare also Italian pomodoro (literally “gold apple”), archaic English love apple.

• IPA^(key): /taˈdaːma/

tadama f (collective tadam, plural tadamiet)

1. a tomato (single fruit)