pomme d'apin.

Etymology: < French pomme d'api (1571 in Middle French as pomme apie ; compare also †pomme appiane (1573)), apparently < French pomme pome n.¹ + de de prep. + Appius, the name of a Roman who is said by Pliny to have grafted the apple on a quince stock, after classical Latin mālum Appiānum (Pliny).Later writers (from 1600 or earlier) sometimes explain the name as being on account of Appius's having first imported this apple to Rome, although there is apparently no authority for this explanation. Perhaps compare Italian appiolo (adjective) designating a kind of apple bearing fruit in winter (a1566 in mele appiole ), appio an apple of this kind (a1639 as pomi appii ), but this is derived in Italian dictionaries ultimately from classical Latin mēlapium kind of apple (Pliny; < Hellenistic Greek μηλάπιον < ancient Greek μῆλον apple (see male n.²) + ἄπιον pear: see apioid n.).