Also apple of love. [trans. F. pomme d’amour, G. liebesapfel. (A 16th-c. example in Lacurne refers to the use of the fruit as a philtre; but possibly this notion may have been suggested by the name.)] The fruit of the TOMATO, Lycopersicum esculentum. † Formerly also applied to the BRINJAL, Solanum esculentum.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. lxxxv. 438. There be two kindes of Amorus or Raging Love apples.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. lv. § 5. 275. The apple of Loue is called in Latine … Poma Amoris.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xxxi. 294. There is at the Indies any good thing that Spaine brings foorth … as … Becengenes, or apples of love,… vetches, and finally whatsoever groweth heere of any profite.
1707–12. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 211. Apples of Love.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvi. (1795), 201. Tomatos or Love-Apple … is also admitted to the table and eaten with impunity.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., I. 235. Baron Tschoudi … informs us that he has grafted the love-apple on the potatoe.
allusively. 1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Living Lustres. I mean the love-apples that bloom in the eyes.
