Other forms: eggplants
An eggplant is the shiny purple vegetable shaped like a big teardrop. Grill the eggplant, a whole eggplant, eggplant parmesan.
This is the American word; British English says aubergine, and the two are among the sharpest splits in food vocabulary. The name came from an early variety that was small, white and egg-shaped, which explains a word that otherwise makes no sense.
1nouneggplantA shiny purple vegetable shaped like a teardrop.
“Slice the eggplant, brush it with oil and grill it until soft.”
eggplant is a vegetable.
Also accepted in games: aubergine
Egg plus plant, from an early variety that was white and egg-shaped rather than purple.
From egg + plant, originally applied only to the white-colored, egg-shaped variety. Compare Dutch - and Afrikaans eierplant (“eggplant”), German Eierpflanze (“eggplant”), Swedish äggplanta (“eggplant”). Compare also Afrikaans eiervrug (“eggplant”) literally “egg-fruit”, Icelandic eggaldin (“eggplant”) literally “egg-fruit”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA