زيتون

Related to زَيْت (zayt, “olive oil”); but the stem extension, unknown in Arabic morphology, directly relates to Aramaic, where -ōnā forms diminutive nouns; developing there the sense of an “olive tree” found for the simplex across Northwest Semitic to what is attested as Classical Mandaic ࡆࡉࡕࡅࡍࡀ (zētōnā, “little olive tree”) and then attaining based on the idea of the fruit being a miniature olive tree the meaning “olive”, as well as retaining the meaning of an olive tree.