A popular name for the Solanum esculentum, originally given to the white-fruited variety, but afterwards extended to that which bears the purple fruit or Aubergine.
1767. J. Abercrombie, Ev. Man Own Gard. (1800), 102. The choicest kinds [of tender annuals] are the double balsams,… ice-plant, egg-plant, [etc.].
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvi. 202. When this [its fruit] is white, it has the name of Egg Plant.
1847. Mrs. Sherwood, Life, xv. 273. Soup made of a glutinous vegetable, and the egg-plant roasted before the fire.
1861. Delamer, Kitch. Gard., 125. There is the purple-fruited egg-plant, and the white-fruited egg-plant.
