Also 7 jejub, 7–8 jujub, 8 jujeb. Also 4–8 in L. form jujuba. [a. F. jujube, or med.L. (and Sp.) jujuba, a much altered form of Gr. ζίζυφον. In cl.Latin, this was duly reproduced in Columella and Palladius by zizyphum (the fruit), zizyphus (the tree); these appear to have passed in late pop. L. and Romanic through zizipum, -us, zizupum, -us (cf. Appendix Probi, ed. Heræus, 1899, ‘zizipus non zizupus’), *zizubum, -us, to *zuzubo, zuzibo, whence (with the frequent change of z to j, and use of the neuter-pl. in -a in fruit-names as a fem. sing.) Old Aretine dial. of It. giuggebo (= jujebo) the tree, giuggeba the fruit, and med.L. jujuba, F. jujube. The forms jujeb and jejub come nearer to Old Aretine giuggeba and vulgar L. zizubum.]
1. An edible berry-like drupe, the fruit of various species of Zizyphus (N.O. Rhamnaceæ).
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 74. Take a potel of water of barly clensid iiij. ʓ. Iuiube, sebesten ana .ʓ. fs. [etc.]. Ibid., 182. Colre schal be purgid in þis maner … sebesten .xv. in noumbre, iuiubas .xx. [etc.].
c. 1550. Lloyd, Treas. Health, lxxxiii. (1585), Y ij b. Take of Violettes .ʓ iii, of iuiubes, and of the iiii. cold sedes before namyd.
1586. Baker, Traheron’s Vigo, 441. Iuiube are fruits, which the Latines call zizipha.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, I. 22. Damson-trees, sallowes by the waters side, and trees of Iuiubas.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 181. Take … of alkakeng berries, twenty in number; of iuiubes six couple.
1641. French, Distill., ii. (1651), 57. Adde … the best Jujubs, the kernels taken out, half a pound.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 19. The Mites, in Jujubes and Sebesten’s…. Jejub’s and Sebesten’s.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 134. The Jujubs are the Fruit of a Tree which grows commonly in Provence.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 134. Jujebs are an Italian Fruit.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. vi. 212. The Lotus-eaters—whose favourite fruit still grows, under the name of the jujube, on the same coast.
1858. Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 557. This … known under the name of the jujube, is a favorite dessert in Italy and Spain.
b. Any of the species of Zizyphus which produce this fruit, as Z. vulgaris of the Mediterranean countries, Z. Jujuba of China, Z. Lotus of N. Africa.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 37 a. Cypros is a tre in Egypt wyth leaues of iuiuba.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 73. A kind of Juiuba, whose leaves shine like silver.
1759. trans. Adanson’s Voy. Senegal, 49. He was sitting on the sand, under the shade of a jujube.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 99. Over our heads waved palms of every description, cocoanuts, breadfruits, jujubes, and hundreds of others.
2. A lozenge, made of gum-arabic, gelatin, etc., flavored with, or in imitation of, the fruit (sense 1).
1835. [Remembered by Rev. C. B. Mount].
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, 210/2. The term jujube is … very generally applied by chemists and confectioners to a thickened mucilaginous lozenge.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1251/2. The dried fruits … are given to allay cough. The lozenges sold as Jujubes are commonly but erroneously said to be flavoured with them.
3. attrib. and Comb., as jujube paste, a jelly made from jujubes, or a confection flavored with, or in imitation of, them; jujube-plum = sense 1; jujube-tree = sense 1 b.
1858. Hogg, Veget. Kingd., 235. *Jujube paste … should consist of gum arabic and sugar dissolved in a decoction of this fruit … but as made in this country the fruit forms no part of the ingredient.
1884. J. Payne, 1001 Nights, VIII. 70. *Jujube-plums of various colours.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, 82. Zizypha … maye be called in english *Iuiuba tree.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xlix. 722. This tree is called … in English, the Iuiub tree.
1879. Sir E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, V. (1881), 110. Under dark mangoes and the jujube-trees.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 299. Jujube or Ber Tree…. A loosely-branched tree or shrub, ten to forty feet high.
