- adore (v.)
- late 14c., aouren, "to worship, pay divine honors to, bow down before," from Old French aorer "to adore, worship, praise" (10c.), from Latin adorare "speak to formally, beseech, ask in prayer," in Late Latin "to worship," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + orare "speak formally, pray" (see orator). Meaning "to honor very highly" is attested from 1590s; weakened sense of "to be very fond of" emerged by 1880s. Related: Adored; adoring.
- adoring (adj.)
- 1650s, "worshipping," present participle adjective from adore. Related: Adoringly.
- adorable (adj.)
- 1610s, from French adorable, from Latin adorabilis "worthy of worship," from adorare (see adore). Weakened sense of "delightful, charming" is recorded from 1710. Related: Adorably; adorableness.
- adoration (n.)
- 1540s, from Middle French adoration, from Latin adorationem (nominative adoratio) "worship, adoration," noun of action from past participle stem of adorare; see adore, the original sense of which is preserved in this word.
- tomato (n.)
- 1753, earlier tomate (c. 1600), from Spanish tomate (mid-16c.) from Nahuatl (Aztecan) tomatl "a tomato," said to mean literally "the swelling fruit," from tomana "to swell." Spelling probably influenced by potato (1565). Slang meaning "an attractive girl" is recorded from 1929, on notion of juicy plumpness.
A member of the nightshade family, all of which contain poisonous alkaloids. Introduced in Europe from the New World, by 1550 they regularly were consumed in Italy but grown only as ornamental plants in England and not eaten there or in the U.S. at first. An encyclopedia of 1753 describes it as "a fruit eaten either stewed or raw by the Spaniards and Italians and by the Jew families of England." Introduced in U.S. 1789 as part of a program by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, but not commonly eaten until after c. 1830.
Alternative name love apple and alleged aphrodisiac qualities have not been satisfactorily explained; perhaps from Italian name pomodoro, taken as from adorare "to adore," but probably rather from d'or "of gold" (in reference to color) or de Moro "of the Moors."
