Etymology Dictionary

ALMOND,   a kind of fruit.  (F.,—Gk.)   'As for almonds, they are of the nature of nuts;' Holland's Pliny, bk. xv. c. 22.    Wyclif has almaundis, almonds, Gen. xliii. 11; almaunder, an almond-tree, Eccles. xii. 5 (where the Vulgate has amygdalus).   [The l is an inserted letter, possibly owing to confusion with M.E. and F. forms involving the sequence of letters -alm-, where the l was but slightly sounded.   It is remarkable that the excrescent l appears likewise in the Span. almendra, an almond, almendro, an almond-tree.]—French amande, formerly also amende (Brachet); Cotgrave has 'Amande, an almond.'—Lat. amygdala, amygdalum, an almond; whence (as traced by Brachet) the forms amygd'la, amy'dla, amyndla (with excrescent n before d), amynda; and next O.F. amende, later amande.   Cf. Prov. amandola.—Gk. ἀμυγδάλη, ἀμύγδαλον, an almond. [※]

ERRATA

Not (F.,—Gk.), but (F.,—L.,—Gk.); as the context shews.   Dr. Murray explains the spelling with al by supposing that, in the Span. almendra, the al was put for a by confusion with the Arabic article al.   In this case, there must have been an O.F. form almande as well as amande, though it is not given in Littré or Burguy.   We find, however, the Anglo-F. pl. alemaundes in the Liber Albus, p. 224; alemande in Roquefort, and the very form almande in Godefroy, but given s.v. alemande.   The Gk. ἀμυγδάλη is said to be of Phrygian origin (Wharton, Etyma Græca).