Names
The scientific species epithet lycopersicum means "wolf peach", and comes from German werewolf myths. These said that deadly nightshade was used to summon werewolves, so the tomato's similar, but much larger, fruit was called the "wolf peach" when it arrived in Europe.
The Aztecs called the fruit xitomatl, meaning plump thing with a navel. Other Mesoamerican peoples, including the Nahuas, took the name as tomatl, from which most western European languages derived their names for "tomato". However, the Italian word, pomodoro (from pomo d'oro "apple of gold") was borrowed into Polish, and via Russian, into several other languages. Similarly, the now rare German term Paradeisapfel (for "apple of paradise") is still heard in the form paradeiser in the Bavarian and Austrian dialects, and was borrowed into modern Hungarian, Slovenian and Serbian.
Read more about this topic: Tomato
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