Forms: α. 7–9 tomate; β. 8– tomato; γ. 8–9 tomata; δ. 8 tomatum, 9 -us. Pl. 8 tomatos, 8– tomatoes. [In 17th c. tomate, a. F. tomate (2 syll.) fem., or Sp. and Pg. tomate (3 syll.) masc., ad. Mex. tomatl. Tomato is an English alteration, app. assumed to be Spanish, or perh. after potato; tomata a later change, app. assuming a Sp. *tomata like patata; tomatum, -us are erroneous latinizations.
1572. Guillandinus, De Papyro, 90. Americanorum tumatle. Ibid., 91. Tumatle … recentiores fere pomum aureum, et pomum amoris nuncupant.]
The glossy fleshy fruit of a solanaceous plant (Solanum Lycopersicum or Lycopersicum esculentum), a native of tropical America, now cultivated as a garden vegetable in temperate as well as tropical lands. It varies when ripe from red to yellow in color, and greatly in size and shape, the common form being irregularly spheroidal, while two smaller forms, considered by some as species, are named from their shape, L. cerasiforme, the cherry tomato, and L. pyriforme, the pear-shaped tomato. Formerly called love-apple, from supposed aphrodisiac qualities. Also the plant, an annual with a weak trailing or climbing stem, irregularly pinnate leaves, and yellow flowers resembling those of the potato.
α. 1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VII. ix. 519. There was also Indian pepper, beetes, Tomates, which is a great sappy and savourie graine.
1775. R. Twiss, Trav. Portugal & Spain, 256. Its district produces … radishes, endive, cucumbers and tomates.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. xxv. 224. I found plenty of tomaté, which being produced in many British gardens, I will not attempt to describe.
1846. Soyer, Cookery, 10. Preserved tomates.
β. 1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl., Tomato, the Portuguese [error] name for the fruit of the lycopersicon or love-apple; a fruit … eaten either stewed or raw by the Spaniards and Italians and by the Jew families in England.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, II. 588. The Solanum Lycopersicon, the fruit of which they call tomatos.
1846. Lindley, Veg. Kingd., i. 621. Tomatoes … are a common ingredient in sauces.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Voy. Eng. I find the sea-life an acquired taste, like that for tomatoes and olives.
γ. 1759. Miller, Gard. Dict., Lycopersicon.… Apple-bearing Nightshade, with a soft, round, striated Fruit, commonly called Tomatas [error] by the Spaniards.
1806. [see 3].
1839. Mag. Dom. Econ., IV. 127. Directions for the various preparations of the Tomata.
1887. J. Ashby Sterry, Lazy Minstrel (1892), 107. The ruddy ripe tomata, In china bowl of ice.
δ. 1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xvi. (1813), 276. Tomatum, or love apples, we have red, white, and yellow fruited.
1822. Lancaster (Pa.) Jrnl., 6 Sept. (Thornton). The pies made of the Tomatus are excellent.
2. With qualifying words, applied to varieties of this fruit or plant, as cherry-, currant-tomato, or to other species resembling it, as cannibal’s tomato, strawberry- or husk-tomato: see quots.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sc., etc., III. 806/1. The Solanum anthropophagorum, which the Feejeans eat at their feasts of human flesh, is hence called the Cannibal’s Tomato.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Cherry Tomato-plant, Solanum Lycopersicum var. cerasiforme. Ibid., Physalis Alkekengi,… Bladder Herb, Red Nightshade, Red Winter-cherry, Straw-berry Tomato. P. pubescens, Barbadoes Cape-Goose-berry, Straw-berry Tomato.
1887. Nicholson’s Dict. Gard., IV. 53/1. Cherry and Red Currant Tomatoes, these are chiefly grown for ornament, as their fruits are borne in great profusion in bunches or clusters. They represent, in general appearance, the Cherry and Red Currant, after which they are popularly called.
b. Tree Tomato, the shrub Cyphomandra belacea, N.O. Solanaceæ, a native of Colombia and Peru, now naturalized in many tropical and subtropical countries; also its fruit.
1880–1. Morris, Ann. Ref. Public Gardens Jamaica, 35. Tree Tomato.
1884. Gard. Chron., XXI. 510. Tree Tomato. This is the popular name of a fruit naturalized in Jamaica…. It answers in every respect the purposes for which the ordinary Tomato is esteemed.
1887. Standard, 16 Sept., 5/2. Here … is the tree tomato,… the Tomato de Paz, or the ‘vegetable mercury.’
3. attrib. and Comb., as tomato-blight, -can, -grafting, -growing, -ketchup, -leaf, -plant, -rot, -sauce, -scab, -seed, -top; tomato-colored, -red adjs.; tomato-gall: see quot. 18912; tomato hawk-moth or sphinx, an American sphingid moth, Protoparce celeus; tomato-worm, the caterpillar of this, which feeds on tomato leaves.
1806. A. Hunter, Culina (ed. 3), 233. The only difference between this and the genuine tomata sauce, is the substituting the pulp of apple for the pulp of tomata.
1846. Soyer, Cookery, 9. Four tablespoonfuls of tomate sauce.
1887. Nicholson’s Dict. Gard., IV. 51/2. It is only in warm situations … that the Tomato crop can be depended upon in the open air. Ibid., 52/1. Tomato culture. Ibid., 52/2. Tomato-plants are seldom very seriously injured by insects.
1891. Miss Dowie, Girl in Karp., 68. Her two tomato-coloured aprons.
1891. Cent. Dict. Tomato-gall, a gall made upon the twigs of the grape-vine in the United States by the gall-midge Lasioptera vitis: so called on account of its resemblance to the fruit of the tomato.
1892. Daily News, 3 Sept., 2/1. Another tea jacket is in tomato red velvet. Ibid. (1896), 25 Nov., 3/5. An alleged libel on the plaintiffs in their trade as sellers of tomato ketchup.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 16 Dec., 12/2. To graft the tomato on the potato stalk…. So far from taking from the strength of the tubers, the tomato-grafting, he thinks, improves them. He never grew such fine potatoes as with tomato-tops, nor such fine tomatoes as with potato roots.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 885. Readily mistaken for tomato-seeds.
1904. E. Nesbit, Phœnix & Carpet, xi. 206. Tomato-coloured Liberty silk.
Mod. Breakfast Menu Card, Tomato Omelettes.
