prune

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to trim a plant by cutting branches, or a dried plum

   He paused to prune the dead branches from the apple tree.

Simplified etymology

Prune entered English in the late Middle English period and comes ultimately from Latin prunum, the same source as plum. It originally denotes a plum preserved by drying.

In the sense 'to trim', from Old French proignier ('to cut back, prune'), of uncertain origin, perhaps from a Vulgar Latin *prorotundiare ('to round off in front'). The fruit sense is unrelated, from Latin prunum ('plum'), from Ancient Greek prou(m)non.

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