cherry

The word traces back to Ancient Greek kerasós, meaning 'bird cherry,' which gave rise to kerásion, 'cherry fruit.' This passed through Late Latin cerasium/ceresia and Proto-West Germanic *kirsijā into Old English ċiris, while a separate path through Anglo-Norman cherise fed into Middle English chery.

Anglo-Norman cherise was mistaken for a plural noun by English speakers, who then treated the 's' as a plural marker and dropped it — turning one cherry into 'cherries' by clipping the original singular down to 'cherry.'

Cherry is a doublet of cerise and kirsch, both of which trace back to the same Greek root — cerise being the French word for the color/fruit, and kirsch the cherry brandy.