currant: [14] Etymologically, currants are grapes from ‘Corinth’. In the Middle Ages Corinth, in Greece, exported small dried grapes of particularly high quality, which became known in Old French as raisins de Corinthe ‘grapes of Corinth’. This phrase passed via Anglo-Norman raisins de corauntz into Middle English as raisins of coraunce. By the 16th century, coraunce had come to be regarded as a plural form, and a new singular was coined from it – at first coren, and then in the 17th century currant.
In the late 16th century, too, the name was transferred to fruit such as the blackcurrant and redcurrant, under the mistaken impression that the ‘dried-grape’ currant was made from them.
currant (n.)
c. 1500, from raysyn of Curans (mid-14c.) "raisins of Corinth," with the -s- mistaken for a plural inflection. From Anglo-French reisin de Corauntz. The small, seedless raisins were exported from southern Greece. Then in 1570s the word was applied to an unrelated Northern European berry (genus Ribes), recently introduced in England, on its resemblance to the raisins.
雙語例句
1. She was sitting at the kitchen table eating a currant bun.
她正坐在餐桌旁，吃著葡萄干圓面包。
來自柯林斯例句
2. It's necessary for us to net the currant bushes.
我們有必要用網(wǎng)蓋上紅醋栗樹.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
3. The black currant trees were the apple of Joseph's eye.
這些果樹是約瑟夫的寶貝.
來自辭典例句
4. We are supply Currant, Spec: Greens, White, Red, Yellow Currant.