ADAM'S APPLE
This name ( Pomo d'Adamo ) is given at Goa to the fruit of the Mimusops Elengi , Linn. ( Birdwood ); and in the 1635 ed. of Gerarde's Herball it is applied to the Plantain. But in earlier days it was applied to a fruit of the Citron kind.—(See Marco Polo , 2nd ed., i. 101), and the following:
Historical Citations (2)
"In his hortis (of Cairo) ex arboribus virescunt mala citria, aurantia, limonia sylvestria et domestica poma Adami vocata."—Prosp. Alpinus, i. 16.
"It is a kind of lime or citron tree ... it is called Pomum Adami, because it has on its rind the appearance of two bites, which the simplicity of the ancients imagined to be the vestiges of the impression which our forefather made upon the forbidden fruit...." Bluteau, quoted by Tr. of Alboquerque, Hak. Soc. i. 100. The fruit has nothing to do with zamboa, with which Bluteau and Mr. Birch connect it. See JAMBOO.
From Hobson-Jobson by Yule & Burnell, 1886.