† wheat-plum Obs. (or dial.)
[orig. a misinterpretation of L. cērea prūna waxen or wax-coloured plums (Virgil, Ecl. ii. 53), cērea being misapprehended as *cĕrea wheaten (f. Ceres wheat, corn); subsequent association with white is probable (cf. wheatear2 and Du. witte pruim).]
Name of a supposed variety of plum.
| 1538 Elyot Addit., Cerea pruna, wheate [ed. 1542 wheaten] plummes. 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 76 Januaries abstract. Of trees or fruites to be set or remooued... Wheat plums. 1577 Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. 96 Wheate Plomes, and horse Plomes, wherewith they vse to fatte Hogges. 1611 Cotgr., Prune blanche, the wheat, or white Plumme. 1657 C. Beck Univ. Char. M 3, A wheat plum⁓tree. 1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 629 There groweth wild in some places of the Woods a Plum somewhat like our Wheat-Plum. 1793 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 294, I am uncertain what he intends by the Wheat-plum. 1847 Halliwell, Wheat-plum, a large fleshy plum, sometimes called a bastard Orleans plum. Linc. |