Etymology of Apricot

I cannot agree in the opinion expressed by your correspondent E.C.H., that this word is derived from the Latin *præcox*, signifying "early-ripening,"—that the words προκοκκια and πρεκοκκια are {76}Græcised Latin,—and that the Arabs themselves, adopting the word with a slight variation, made it *al-bercoy*. The fact of the fruit itself being of Asiatic origin, renders it in the highest degree improbable that the Orientals would borrow a name for it from the Latin. My own opinion is, that the reverse is the case—that the Latin is merely a corruption of the Arabic; and that the Latins, in adoptin…