Plum

Plum derives from the Old English plume, which was itself borrowed from the Latin prunum, meaning plum fruit. The Latin word came from the ancient Greek prounon, and similar forms appear in many European languages, from the French prune to the German Pflaume. The fruit was cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean and brought to western Europe in antiquity, and by the time of the Old English period plume was already the established English word for the fruit. Over the centuries the spelling evolved through Middle English forms to the modern plum. The association of plums with desirability is ancient; in English, plum has been used figuratively since at least the eighteenth century to mean something exceptionally good or wished-for, as in a plum role in a play or a plum position in an organisation. This figurative meaning derives from the sweetness and relative scarcity of plums in the pre-modern diet, when fresh fruit was a luxury. The deep purple-red colour of most plum varieties also contributed to the word's associations with richness and luxury, as that colour was associated with aristocratic dress and ecclesiastical robes. As a given name Plum was used as a pet name and nickname in England for centuries before becoming an occasionally used formal name in modern times.

Plum has a quietly distinguished place in British cultural life, most famously as the lifelong nickname of P.G. Wodehouse, the beloved comic author whose full name was the rather formidable Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. The nickname Plum, used by his family and close friends from childhood, is said to have come from the initials P.G., and it remained his name within his personal circle throughout his long life. This connection gives Plum an association with wit, warmth, and the particular brand of gentle English comedy that Wodehouse represented at its finest. The name gained further literary currency through Plum Sykes, the British-American journalist and novelist known for her Vogue fashion writing and her satirical novel Bergdorf Blondes, who made the name feel chic and contemporary within London and New York cultural circles. In popular culture Professor Plum, the scholarly murder suspect in the board game Cluedo, has made the name familiar to generations of British children in a slightly absurd, affectionately comedic register. As the existing lore notes, the phrase plum job dates to at least the eighteenth century, when plums were expensive luxuries, meaning that in giving a child this name, parents are drawing on a very long English tradition of associating the plum with something especially good and worth having.