Badam - Origin and History - Etymology and Names

Etymology and Names

The word "almond" comes from Old French almande or alemande, Late Latin *amandula, derived through a form amygdala from the Greek ἀμυγδαλή (amygdalē) (cf. amygdala), an almond. The al- in English, for the a- used in other languages may be due a confusion with the Arabic article al, the word having first dropped the a- as in the Italian form mandorla; the British pronunciation ah-mond and the modern Catalan ametlla and modern French amande show a form of the word closer to the original. Other related names of almond include mandel or knackmandel (German), amandier or amande (French), mandorlo (Italian), and almendro (Spanish).

The adjective amygdaloid (literally "like an almond") is used to describe objects which are roughly almond-shaped, particularly a shape which is part way between a rectangle and an ellipse. See, for example, the brain structure amygdala, which uses a direct borrowing of the Greek term amygdalē.