There is an intriguing Germanic variant of the
"apple-tree" word, which deserves to be mentioned connection with the etymology
of apple. It's OE reflex is as apuldor (a
strong neuter noun), surviving in the placename Appledore (Kent, Devon, and even
Appledore Island in the Gulf of Maine). It looks as if it had developed from
*apuldra-n (as do the related OHG and Scandinavian forms).
*apul- is obviously *ab@...-; I suspect that
the *d may be epenthetic and
*r < *s via Verner's Law + rhotacism
(more or less as in alder < OE
alor/alr- < *alVsá:), in
which case the PGmc "apple-tree" stem would be reconstructable as
*apul-za- < *apul-sá- <
*ab@...-, perhaps with a "dendronymic" *-s-
suffix as in the "alder" word or in *ap-so- 'aspen' (with
metathesis in Germanic). I'm just speculating, as the dictionaries I've
consulted don't offer any help. Has anyone come across this stuff
before?
Piotr