Why currants are called "currants" (you'll never guess!)
Wednesday 7 January 2026 at 22:19
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The word currant was originally applied what we now call raisins, which are dried grapes (compare French raisin). There was a Greek raisin industry in Corinth and raisins imported from there were called in Anglo-French reisin de Corauntz, borrowed into English as raysyn of Curans.
Over time this became shortened to currants. The OED gives this quote for 1620:
The small Raisins of Corinth, which we commonly call Currants. [1]
Later the word currant became used mainly for small fruits from other plants, blackcurrants, redcurrants and so on, while dried grapes, the original "raisins of Cornith", came to be called simply "raisins".
The name of the Greek city Corinth, in Greek Korinthos, is interesting in itself because it is probably borrowed from the non Indo-European language spoken in Greece before the Greeks arrived. It is the cluster nth (νθ) also found in menthe, "mint", and labyrinthos, and plinthos, "brick", that suggest this. So perhaps the currants in your bun preserve a word from a long dead Mediterranean language.
Why currants are called "currants" (you'll never guess!)
The word currant was originally applied what we now call raisins, which are dried grapes (compare French raisin). There was a Greek raisin industry in Corinth and raisins imported from there were called in Anglo-French reisin de Corauntz, borrowed into English as raysyn of Curans.
Over time this became shortened to currants. The OED gives this quote for 1620:
Later the word currant became used mainly for small fruits from other plants, blackcurrants, redcurrants and so on, while dried grapes, the original "raisins of Cornith", came to be called simply "raisins".
The name of the Greek city Corinth, in Greek Korinthos, is interesting in itself because it is probably borrowed from the non Indo-European language spoken in Greece before the Greeks arrived. It is the cluster nth (νθ) also found in menthe, "mint", and labyrinthos, and plinthos, "brick", that suggest this. So perhaps the currants in your bun preserve a word from a long dead Mediterranean language.
[1] T. Venner, Via Recta vii. 122