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Why is it nutmeg and not *megnut?

Is it something to do with Latin/French influences on the English grammar?

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It is from Old French noiz mugue, probably influenced by Medieval Latin nux maga:

nutmeg (n.) :

  • "hard aromatic seed of the East Indies," c. 1300, from Old North French or Anglo-French noiz mugue, from Old French nois muguete, unexplained alteration of nois muscade "nut smelling like musk," from nois "nut" (from Latin nux) + Latin muscada, fem. of muscat "musky".

  • Probably influenced in English by Medieval Latin nux maga (compare unaltered Dutch muskaatnoot, German muscatnuß, Swedish muskotnöt).

(Etymonline)

Nutmeg (as reported by the OED):

  • NUT n.1 + a second element which is either Middle English muge musk (rare ...) or its etymon Anglo-Norman muge, mugue and Old French mugue musk (end of the 11th cent.; ultimately < post-classical Latin muscus MUSK n.), probably after Anglo-Norman nois mugette (also nois muscade, nois muscate) and Middle French noix muguette (14th cent.; 12th cent. in Old French as noiz mugate, noiz muguete, noiz muscade, noiz muscate, ...).

  • No compound in mugue musk, directly paralleling the English word, is attested in either Anglo-Norman or Old French, but compare post-classical Latin nux muga (1325), nux de muga (1314; both in British sources). Compare Catalan nou moscada ..., Old Occitan noz muscada (c1250), Italian noce moscata ..., Spanish nuez moscada ..., post-classical Latin nux muscata (see NUX MOSCHATA n.).

  • The Romance compound has been borrowed into several Germanic languages, compare Middle Dutch notemusscate (Dutch nootmuskaat, notemuskaat; also muskaatnoot denoting the fruit containing the nutmeg), Middle High German muscātnuz (German Muskatnuss), Swedish muskotnöt, Danish muskatnød. ...]

(www.wordorigins.org)

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  • But what is it about the Latin grammar that makes it different from the German?
    – E_L
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 14:54
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    Maga is an adjective in that case and it usually comes after the noun, so you have the French noix muscade, the Italian noce moscata, nuez moscada in Spanish...
    – user66974
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 14:56
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    Probably because of the strong influence of French at that time, and of Latin as a consequence.
    – user66974
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 14:57
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    Probably the French influence. My impression is that a lot of cooking terms in English came directly from French. For example, saffron, cinnamon, cardamom, sage, rosemary, thyme, clove, anice, mace, mustard are all derived from French. While pepper, salt, parsley, ginger, cumin, garlic were present in Old English.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 15:55
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    @E_L Latin has free word order, but most ordinarily it has the noun before the adjective. You see the same thing in scientific names of species. As for why Latin puts the noun before the adjective, that might be a good question for latin.stackexchange.com or linguistics.stackexchange.com.
    – Ben Kovitz
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 16:19

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