My mother was nonplussed. We all, including my two cousins who were visiting that week, had an impulse to clap.
On the matter of etymologies, however, Oliver begged to differ. “Ah?!” was my father’s startled response.
“The word is actually not an Arabic word,” he said.
“How so?”
My father was clearly mimicking Socratic irony, which would start with an innocent “You don’t say,” only then to lead his interlocutor onto turbulent shoals.
“It’s a long story, so bear with me, Pro.” Suddenly Oliver had become serious. “Many Latin words are derived from the Greek. In the case of ‘apricot,’ however, it’s the other way around; the Greek takes over from Latin. The Latin word was praecoquum, from pre-coquere, pre-cook, to ripen early, as in ‘precocious,’ meaning premature.
“The Byzantines borrowed praecox, and it became prekokkia or berikokki, which is finally how the Arabs must have inherited it as al-birquq.”
母亲一脸困惑。而包括当时来做客的两位表亲在内，我们都有想鼓掌的冲动。
然而、奥利弗表示绝对无法同意父亲关于词源的见解。“啊？”父亲吃了一惊。
“这个字其实不是阿拉伯语。”
“怎么说？”父亲显然在模仿那个苏格拉底式的反讽，先从天真无邪的“真的吗”开始，接着把谈话者引入混乱的陷阱中。
“说来话长，所以请耐心听我说，教授。”奥利弗突然严肃起来。“许多拉丁词汇源于希腊语。但是就‘杏’来说，则是相反的状况；是希腊语借用拉丁语。拉丁词是 praecoquum，源于 pre-coquere，也就是 pre-cook，早熟的意思，跟 precocious 算是同义字。拜占庭人借用了 praecox，后来演变成 prekokkia 或 berikokki ，这必定是阿拉伯人后来继承了 al-birquq 一词的由来。”
My mother, unable to resist his charm, reached out to him and tousled his hair and said, “Che muvi star!”
“He is right, there is no denying it,” said my father under his breath, as though mimicking the part of a cowered Galileo forced to mutter the truth to himself.
“Courtesy of Philology 101,” said Oliver.
All I kept thinking of was apricock precock, precock apricock19.
母亲无法抗拒奥利弗的魅力，伸手揉乱他的头发说：“大明星！”
“他说的没错，无可否认。”父亲压低嗓子说，仿佛在模仿畏畏缩缩的伽利略只敢对自己喃喃说出事实的样子。
“这要多亏文献学概论这堂课。”奥利弗说。
但我脑子里一直盘旋的只有杏器、早熟的性器。
One day I saw Oliver sharing the same ladder with the gardener, trying to learn all he could about Anchise’s grafts, which explained why our apricots were larger, fleshier, juicier than most apricots in the region. He became fascinated with the grafts, especially when he discovered that the gardener could spend hours sharing everything he knew about them with anyone who cared to ask.
有一天我看到奥利弗和园丁安喀斯共用一个梯子，想尽可能把他的嫁接方法都学会。正因为这种嫁接法，我们家的杏比同地区其他大部分杏更大个儿、更肥美、更多汁。当奥利弗发现只要有任何人愿意开口问，园丁就乐意花上好几个钟头不厌其烦地跟人分享他有关杏的一切知识后，他对嫁接法更是入迷。
On the matter of etymologies, however, Oliver begged to differ. “Ah?!” was my father’s startled response.
“The word is actually not an Arabic word,” he said.
“How so?”
My father was clearly mimicking Socratic irony, which would start with an innocent “You don’t say,” only then to lead his interlocutor onto turbulent shoals.
“It’s a long story, so bear with me, Pro.” Suddenly Oliver had become serious. “Many Latin words are derived from the Greek. In the case of ‘apricot,’ however, it’s the other way around; the Greek takes over from Latin. The Latin word was praecoquum, from pre-coquere, pre-cook, to ripen early, as in ‘precocious,’ meaning premature.
“The Byzantines borrowed praecox, and it became prekokkia or berikokki, which is finally how the Arabs must have inherited it as al-birquq.”
母亲一脸困惑。而包括当时来做客的两位表亲在内，我们都有想鼓掌的冲动。
然而、奥利弗表示绝对无法同意父亲关于词源的见解。“啊？”父亲吃了一惊。
“这个字其实不是阿拉伯语。”
“怎么说？”父亲显然在模仿那个苏格拉底式的反讽，先从天真无邪的“真的吗”开始，接着把谈话者引入混乱的陷阱中。
“说来话长，所以请耐心听我说，教授。”奥利弗突然严肃起来。“许多拉丁词汇源于希腊语。但是就‘杏’来说，则是相反的状况；是希腊语借用拉丁语。拉丁词是 praecoquum，源于 pre-coquere，也就是 pre-cook，早熟的意思，跟 precocious 算是同义字。拜占庭人借用了 praecox，后来演变成 prekokkia 或 berikokki ，这必定是阿拉伯人后来继承了 al-birquq 一词的由来。”
My mother, unable to resist his charm, reached out to him and tousled his hair and said, “Che muvi star!”
“He is right, there is no denying it,” said my father under his breath, as though mimicking the part of a cowered Galileo forced to mutter the truth to himself.
“Courtesy of Philology 101,” said Oliver.
All I kept thinking of was apricock precock, precock apricock19.
母亲无法抗拒奥利弗的魅力，伸手揉乱他的头发说：“大明星！”
“他说的没错，无可否认。”父亲压低嗓子说，仿佛在模仿畏畏缩缩的伽利略只敢对自己喃喃说出事实的样子。
“这要多亏文献学概论这堂课。”奥利弗说。
但我脑子里一直盘旋的只有杏器、早熟的性器。
One day I saw Oliver sharing the same ladder with the gardener, trying to learn all he could about Anchise’s grafts, which explained why our apricots were larger, fleshier, juicier than most apricots in the region. He became fascinated with the grafts, especially when he discovered that the gardener could spend hours sharing everything he knew about them with anyone who cared to ask.
有一天我看到奥利弗和园丁安喀斯共用一个梯子，想尽可能把他的嫁接方法都学会。正因为这种嫁接法，我们家的杏比同地区其他大部分杏更大个儿、更肥美、更多汁。当奥利弗发现只要有任何人愿意开口问，园丁就乐意花上好几个钟头不厌其烦地跟人分享他有关杏的一切知识后，他对嫁接法更是入迷。
