Fig

How to spell fig

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fig

What does fig mean?

1. nounA soft, sweet, pear-shaped fruit full of tiny seeds, or the tree that bears it.

Fig in a sentence

• She spread soft cheese and a sliced fig on the toast.

• The old fig tree in the garden produced a heavy crop this summer.

Where does fig come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin ficus, the name of both the fig tree and its sweet fruit. It travelled into English through Old French figue during the 1200s, gradually replacing the older native Old English term for the fruit. The Latin ficus also gave rise to related words in many European languages, and it survives in scientific naming where the fig genus is still called Ficus. A fig was such a common but trifling item in medieval markets that the phrase 'not worth a fig' grew up to mean something of almost no value at all. The simple three-letter spelling has stayed remarkably stable, which makes this one of the easier words to write from memory.

How the word is built

• fig (whole root word, from Latin ficus 'fig tree')