Pea

:Peas is also the name of a commune of the Marne département in France.

Etymology

According to etymologists, the term was taken from Latin and adopted into English as the singular term "pease", as in pease pudding below. However, by analogy with other plurals ending in "-s", speakers began construing "pease" as a plural and constructing the singular form by dropping the "s", giving us the term "pea". This process is known in linguistics as back-formation.

Related Topics:
Etymologists - Latin - English - Singular - Plural - Linguistics - Back-formation

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:Pease pudding hot,

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:Pease pudding cold,

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:Pease pudding in the pot,

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:Nine days old

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:Some like it hot,

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:Some like it cold,

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:Some like it in the pot

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:Nine days old

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The name marrowfat pea for mature dried peas is recorded by the OED as early as 1733. The fact that an export variety popular in Japan is called Maro has led some people to assume mistakenly that the English name marrowfat is derived from Japanese.

Related Topics:
OED - 1733 - Japanese

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