▪ I. pome, n.1
(pəʊm)
(Also in comb. 5 powm(e, 6 poum, 6–7 pom.)
[a. OF. pome (F. pomme):—late L. or Romanic *pōma apple, orig. pl. of L. pōmum ‘fruit’, later, ‘apple’.]
1. A fruit of the apple kind or resembling an apple; now only poet. an apple. † Punical pome, pomegranate: = Apple Punic (apple n. 3).
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 742 Ox dong aboute her roote if that me trete, The pomes sadde & braune wil hit gete. c 1430 Lydg. Ballad Commend. our Lady 121 O punical pome ayens al pestilence. 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. ii. 22 A taste..of wholsome cytron pome. 1729 Evelyn's Sylva ii. v. 154 They have sometimes produced a pretty small Pome. 1839 Bailey Festus xxvii. (1851) 466 Like her of old, ere dropped the golden pome. |
b. Bot. A succulent inferior fruit, consisting of a firm fleshy body formed of the enlarged calyx, inclosing two or more few-seeded carpels (rarely only one) of cartilaginous or bony texture, forming the core: as an apple, pear, quince, haw, etc.
| 1816 Keith Phys. Bot. II. 160 In the pear the pome tapers down gradually to the point of insertion. 1853 in Pharmac. Jrnl. XIII. 14 The fruit is a small black pome. |
† 2. The heart or head of a cabbage, cauliflower, or broccoli. (F.
pomme.)
Obs.| 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 178 When their heads, and pomes are formed, if you perceive any of them ready to run to seed, draw the plant half out of the ground. 1664 ― Kal. Hort. Aug. (1729) 213 Cauly-flowers over-speeding to pome and head. |
3. transf. A ball or globe, especially of metal; the royal globe or ball of dominion
= golden apple (
apple n. 6); see also
quot. 1866.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3355 And syne profres me a pome pighte fulle of faire stonys..In sygne þat I sothely was souerayne in erthe. 1579 Inv. R. Wardr. (1815) 293 A belt with..ane pome garnissit with perll. 1814 Southey Roderick xviii. 131 Where was the rubied crown, the sceptre where, And where the golden pome. 1866 Direct. Angl. (ed. 3) 257 Pome, a round ball of silver or other metal; which is filled with hot water, and is placed on the altar in winter months to prevent danger or accident with the chalice, from the hands of the priest becoming numb with cold. |
† 4. Fortif. The rounded projecting shoulder of a bastion.
Obs.| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. i. 125 The parts of a Bulwarke are..the Orecchion or Pome, or gard, or shoulder. 1598 Florio, Orecchione, that part of a bulwarke which is called by some the pome, guard, or shoulder. |
† 5. = pomander 1.
rare.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 146 Precyus invnctment, salve, or fragrant pome. |
6. Comb., as
pome-bearing,
pome-shaped adjs.;
† pome-adam [in F.
pomme d'Adam = mod.L.
pomum Adami]
= Adam's apple 1, lime-fruit;
† pome-paradise [
cf. F.
pomme de paradis (
Cotgr. 1611)], a sweet kind of apple,
= paradise apple a, honey-apple b;
† pome-quince, ? an apple-shaped variety of quince;
† pome-warden, ?
= pome-pear. See also
pome-citron, etc.
| 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme iii. xxvi. 482 As for *pome-adams [Fr. orig. pommes d'Adam] they are round, twise or thrise as great, as orenges. |
| 1901 G. Nicholson's Dict. Gard., Cent. Suppl. 645/2 R[osa] pomifera (*pome-bearing). Great Apple Rose. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 164 The *Pome-Paradise, or hony Apples called Melimela. 1611 Cotgr., Passe-pomme, the Pome-paradice, Honny-apple, or Honny-meale; (an apple thats quickly ripe, and quickly rotten). 1658 Phillips, Pome-paradice, a fruit called a John-apple. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 105 A liniment of it and *Pome-quinces or Peare-quinces, easeth the head-ach. |
| 1895 Syd. Soc. Lex., Pomiform, *pome-shaped. |
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 605 Other more comon fruytes: as costardes, wardens, *pomewardons, richardons, damysyns, and plummes. |
▪ II. pome, n.2 (
pəʊm)
A jocular alteration of ‘poem’.
| 1861 G. Meredith Let. 16 Aug. (1970) I. 100 Did you get the Pome I sent? 1897 A. R. Marshall (title) Pomes from the Pink 'un. 1927 Joyce (title) Pomes Penyeach. 1959 News Chron. 12 Aug. 4/5 My next pome,..is dedicated to a very fine poet. 1975 A. Coren Further Bull. Pres. Idi Amin 7 Come on out, John Milton!..wot about dis year's jumbo pome you lazy bum? |
▪ III. † pome, v. Obs. [ad. F. pommer, f. pomme: see pome n.1] intr. To form a close compact head or heart, as a cabbage, lettuce, etc.; to head, to heart.
| 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 175 There is another sort of cabbage..they seem to me the most natural of all the rest; for they pome, close to the ground. 1699 ― Acetaria (1729) 150 Lettuce ty'd close up, Pome and Blanch of themselves. 1727 S. Switzer Pract. Gard. iii. xxiii. 130 The time of sowing the chief of the Brassica's, especially those that pome or cabbage. |