The ancient Romans used “mala” to refer to apples. The word is the plural form of the Latin noun mālum, meaning an apple or, more broadly in some contexts, an apple-like fruit.
Apples were familiar and valued foods in the Roman world. Roman writers described several varieties, including apples from different regions, and apples could be eaten fresh, preserved, cooked, or incorporated into sauces and desserts. The phrase ab ovo usque ad mala—“from the egg to the apples”—described a complete meal from beginning to end.
The Latin word also created a famous linguistic association. Mālum, “apple,” resembled malum, meaning “evil,” although the words had different origins and vowel lengths. This similarity is often linked to the Western artistic tradition of depicting the forbidden fruit in Genesis as an apple, even though the biblical text does not identify the fruit by species.