Editing Peach (section)

=== Names ===
[[File:Amygdalus persica Mann.jpg|thumb|From ''Deutschlands wildwachsende Arzney-Pflanzen'' (Germany's Wild Medicinal Plants), 1828]]
The genus name ''Prunus'' is from Latin for plum. The [[specific name (botany)|specific name]] ''persica'' was given by Linnaeus because European botanists of the 1700s and 1800s continued to believe the Roman accounts of peaches originating in [[Persia]] to be correct.{{sfn|Faust|Timon|1995|p=332}}

The modern English word  – and its cognates in many European languages such as the German {{Lang|de|Pfirsich}} and Finnish {{Lang|fi|persikka}} – also have Latin origins.{{sfn|Campbell|2004|pp=274–275}} In ancient Rome the peach was called {{Lang|la|persicum malum}} or simply {{Lang|la|persicum}} meaning {{Gloss|Persian apple}}.{{sfn|Durkin|2009|p=115}} This became the Late Latin {{Lang|la|pessica}} and in turn the medieval {{Lang|la|pesca}}. In Old French it was variously the {{Lang|fro|peche}}, {{Lang|fro|pesche}}, or {{Lang|fro|peske}}. The first usage in England was as the surname ''Pecche'' in about 1184–1185.{{sfn|Barnhart|1995|p=549}} The French word was directly adopted into English to mean the fruit and spelled either ''pechis'' or ''peches'' around the year 1400. In 1605 the first known instance of the modern spelling of ''peach'' was published.{{sfn|OED 2025c}} Peach trees are also, less frequently, called ''common peaches''.{{sfn|NC State Extension}}

The various cultivars of peach with smooth skinned fruits are called nectarines. This word was coined by English speakers, originally as an adjective meaning {{Gloss|nectar-like}}, from ''nectar'' and the suffix ''-ine'', with the first use in print in 1611.{{sfn|OED 2025b}}{{sfn|OED 2025a}}