A small stone fruit, or the tree that bears it.
One cherry from an apparent plural
Simplified path. The puzzle showed the main steps; the full route is being checked.
Latin
cerasus
‘Cherry tree’
into Late Latin
Late Latin
ceresia
‘Cherry’
into Anglo-French
Anglo-French
cherise
‘Cherry, interpreted as plural in English’
into Middle English
Middle English
chery
‘A cherry’
became English
English
cherry
‘The fruit or tree’
An apparent plural ending was removed to name one fruit.
Late Latin ceresia led to Anglo-French cherise. English speakers treated its ending as a plural and formed chery for one fruit. Modern cherry keeps the result of that reinterpretation.
The cards omit the older Latin and Greek forms and select one of the French variants.
Word History and Kids Etymology identify the route and the mistaken-plural analysis.
The deeper history includes Latin cerasus, cherry tree, and Greek kerasos.