lemon

lemon
{{11}}lemon (1) type of citrus fruit, c.1400, lymon, from O.Fr. limon "citrus fruit" (12c.), via Provençal or Italian from Arabic laimun, from Pers. limu(n), generic terms for citrus fruits (Cf. LIME (Cf. lime) (n.2)); cognate with Skt. nimbu "the lime." Slang meaning "a Quaalude" is 1960s, from Lemmon, name of a pharmaceutical company that once manufactured the drug.
{{12}}lemon (2) "worthless thing," 1909, Amer.Eng. slang; from LEMON (Cf. lemon) (1), perhaps via criminal slang sense of "a person who is a loser, a simpleton," which is perhaps from the notion of someone a sharper can "suck the juice out of." A pool hall hustle was called a lemon game (1908); while to hand someone a lemon was British slang (1906) for "to pass off a sub-standard article as a good one." Or it simply may be a metaphor for something which leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

Etymology dictionary. 2014.

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  • Lemon — Lem on (l[e^]m [u^]n), n. [F. limon, Per. l[imac]m[=u]n; cf. Ar. laim[=u]n, Sp. limon, It. limone. Cf. {Lime} a fruit.] [1913 Webster] 1. (Bot.) An oval or roundish fruit resembling the orange, and containing a pulp usually intensely acid. It is… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • lemon — n. A defective or unsatisfactory automobile. The Essential Law Dictionary. Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008. lemon A car that continues to be defective after a reasonable number …   Law dictionary

  • lemon — ► NOUN 1) a pale yellow oval citrus fruit with thick skin and fragrant, acidic juice. 2) a drink made from or flavoured with lemon juice. 3) a pale yellow colour. 4) informal a feeble or unsatisfactory person or thing. DERIVATIVES lemony… …   English terms dictionary

  • lemon — [lem′ən] n. [ME lymon < MFr limon < Ar laimūn < Pers līmūn] 1. a small, egg shaped, edible citrus fruit with a yellow rind and a juicy, sour pulp, rich in ascorbic acid 2. the small, spiny, semitropical evergreen citrus tree (Citrus… …   English World dictionary

  • Lemon D — Lemon D, (real name Kevin King [http://www.rolldabeats.com/artist/lemon d] ) is a Jungle and drum and bass DJ and producer from Brixton in South London. He set up Valve Recordings in partnership with long term collaborator Dillinja, with whom he… …   Wikipedia

  • lemon — [n] dud failure, flop, junk, piece of junk, reject; concepts 412,423 …   New thesaurus

  • lemon — Se usa en la locución locución …   Diccionario Salamanca de la Lengua Española

  • Lemon — This article is about the fruit. For other uses, see Lemon (disambiguation). Lemon Scientific classification …   Wikipedia

  • lemon — lemonish, adj. lemonlike, lemony, adj. /lem euhn/, n. 1. the yellowish, acid fruit of a subtropical citrus tree, Citrus limon. 2. the tree itself. 3. See lemon yellow. 4. Informal. a person or thing that proves to be defective, imperfect, or… …   Universalium

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