Resembling an orange, but much bigger in size, the shaddock is the ancestor of the grapefruit, which was developed from the shaddock in the early nineteenth century in the West Indies. Before settling on its current name, the shaddock was known by several others: the first was the rather whimsical Adam’s apple, first used in the late sixteenth century. Later, at the end of the seventeenth century, it also came to be known as pompelmoose, a name that reflects the fusion of cultures found in Malaysia, where the fruit was also grown: the pompe is the Dutch pompoen, meaning pumpkin, while the Imoose represents the Portuguese limoes, meaning lemons. Pompelmoose, therefore, literally means pumpkin-lemons, as does pamplemousse, which is what the French call grapefruit. In English, shaddock became the predominant name of the fruit in the late seventeenth century after a Captain Shaddock sailed to Barbados with some seeds and established the tree there. Appropriately for a sailor, the captain’s surname means lit tie herring, the shad being a herring-like fish.
The pomelo is a fruit similar to the grapefruit, but larger and with a thicker rind. It is also known as the shaddock, after Captain Shaddock who introduced it to the West Indies from the Far East.
The pomelo, a substantial citrus fruit closely related to the grapefruit, boasts a thick and slightly coarse texture, accompanied by a bitter rind. It is also known by the name “pompelmous.”