Hyphenation
grape·fruit Etymology
() From grape + fruit, an allusion to the grapelike clusters of fruit on the tree. Ciardi proposes another theory. The pummelo's botanical name is Citrus grandi, meaning "great citrus ." It would be natural to call the new pummelo variety a "greatfruit". By saying that name a few times, with its consonant cluster, it sounds like "grapefruit", and it would easily have morphed to that form. This second suggestion is completely speculative, without attestation, but seems much more reasonable than the equally speculative "grape cluster" theory. Actually, pummelo fruits do not not grow in grapelike clusters.