Olive
The
olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in much of Africa, the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to Israel, the Arabian Peninsula, and southern Asia as far east as China, plus the Canary Islands, Mauritius and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalized in France, Corsica, Crimea, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Java, Norfolk Island, California and Bermuda. Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give its name to the plant family, which also includes species such as lilacs, jasmine,
Forsythia and the true ash trees. The word derives from Latin
ŏlīva which is cognate with the Greek ἐλαία and ἔλαιον. The oldest attested forms of the latter two words in Greek are respectively the Mycenaean