Japanese apricot
- noun
- She planted a Japanese apricot in her backyard to enjoy its fragrant blossoms every year.
Examples
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The Japanese apricot blossoms early in spring, brightening gardens with its delicate pink flowers.
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The fruit of the Japanese apricot is often used to make traditional East Asian preserves.
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The Japanese apricot tree blooms beautifully in spring.
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I planted a Japanese apricot in my garden last year.
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She planted a Japanese apricot in her backyard to enjoy its fragrant blossoms every year.
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The Japanese apricot blossoms early in spring, brightening gardens with its delicate pink flowers.
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The fruit of the Japanese apricot is often used to make traditional East Asian preserves.
Synonyms
A small Japanese tree with white or pink flowers and small yellow fruit often grown in gardens
A tree from East Asia with fragrant pink or white blossoms and small yellow fruits like plums
How Ornamental
- South African
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward adjective+noun composition: a B1 learner who knows 'Japanese' (from Japan) and 'apricot' (the fruit/tree) will readily infer it refers to an apricot (or apricot-like) tree/fruit associated with Japan. The naming follows common cross-linguistic patterns for plant names, so the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Japanese apricot may come from how English speakers saw a tree in Japan whose small fruit and pretty blossoms looked like an apricot, so they called it a Japanese apricot. That's why the name now means a fragrant flowering tree from East Asia rather than the common apricot fruit.