arachis oil

noun

ar·​a·​chis oil ˈa-rə-kəs- 

ˈer-ə-

: peanut oil

Word History

Etymology

New Latin Arachis (Linnaeus), genus that includes the peanut, probably derived from the presumed base of Latin arachidna, arachidnē, the legume Lathyrus amphicarpos (which produces seed pods above and below ground), borrowed from Greek aráchidna, of pre-Greek substratal origin

Note: Genus name introduced by linnaeus in the 1753 edition of Species plantarum (vol. 2, p. 741). Linnaeus is more revealing of linguistic sources in his own earlier Hortus Cliffortianus (Amsterdam, 1737), p. 353, where he refers Arachis hypogajos americanus to John Ray's Historia plantarum (London, 1686), p. 919. There are also two references to Arachidna as a taxonomic name for the peanut, the earlier to Hans Sloane's Catalogus plantarum quae in insula Jamaica sponte proveniunt, vel vulgò coluntur (London, 1696), and the later to Charles Plumier's Nova plantarum Americanarum genera (Paris, 1703). Although Linnaeus attributes the form Arachis to Ray, this derivative seems to be his own coinage—Ray actually writes Aracus hypógaios [the latter word in Greek letters] Americanus. Ray's source for this name is Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, or an Herball of a Large Extent (London, 1640) by the English herbalist and botanist John Parkinson (1567-1650). In Chapter XI (p. 1069-70) of "Pulses, the Eleventh Tribe," Parkinson describes a Mediterranean legume, "Arachidna Cretica. Under Ground Candy [i.e., Crete, Cretan] Cicheling Pease" (the plant presently named Lathyrus amphicarpos, whose seed pods are produced both above and below ground); a similar plant from Portugal ("Arachus sub terra siliquifera Lusitanica. Portugall underground Pease or Cichelings"); and a third plant, "Arachus hypógaios Americanus. Underground Cicheling of America or Indian Earthnuts." This plant Parkinson knew only from the seeds: "The Indian Earth-nuts (the figure whereof I give you, together as they are termed to us by them that have brought them us) are very likely to grow from such like plants as are formerly described, not onely by the name but by the sight and taste of the thing it selfe, for wee have not yet seene the face thereof above ground, yet the fruit, or Pease-cods (as I may so call it) is farre larger, whose outer huske is thicke and somewhat long, round at both ends … the last groweth in most places of America, as well to the South, as West parts thereof, both on the maine and Ilands … the last is generally called by our English Sea-men that goe into those parts Earth-nuts, erroniously enough, as they doe most other things that they there meete with." As Parkinson recognized, aráchidna was the Greek name for his "Candy Cicheling Pease" (Lathyrus amphicarpos), used by Theophrastus in Historia plantarum. It is one of a group of related Greek words used to describe pulses, the best attested of which is árakos, a name for Lathyrus annuus and perhaps other species, with the diminutive arakís and arakískos (used by Galen). According to R. Beekes (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Leiden: Brill, 2009), the interchange between plain (k) and aspirate (ch) consonants and the suffix -idna- are clear indications of a non-Indo-European substrate—unsurprising in the names for Mediterranean plants.

First Known Use

1811, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for arachis oil

• aerofoil
• cinquefoil
• hydrofoil
• quatrefoil
• airfoil
• benzoyl
• despoil
• embroil
• etoile
• gargoyle
• recoil
• subsoil

Medical Definition

arachis oil

noun

ar·​a·​chis oil ˈar-ə-kəs- 

: peanut oil