Obs. (or dial.) [orig. a misinterpretation of L. cērea prūna waxen or wax-colored 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.
