Most of the date fruit processing methods employed are still traditional. It becomes imperative to characterize the fruits with a view to understand the properties that may affect the design of machines to handle their processing. Objectives of this study are to present basic principles of physical properties of date fruit (cv. Dairi) in order to facilitate the design of some machines for its processing. Dry-basis moisture content of date fruit was found to be 10.45% (10.88% for pitted dates and 7.87% for their pits). Other results showed that linear dimensions varied from 29.8 to 40.2 mm in length, 15.7 to 20.2 mm in width, and 15 to 19.7 mm in thickness. Mean mass and volume of fruit were measured as 5.30 g and 5.49 cm3, respectively. The projected areas along length (PL), width (PW) and thickness (PT) were 262.71, 498.1, and 513.1 mm2, respectively. The fruit density and pitted fruit density were measured as 0.97 and 1.18 g cm-3, while bulk density and porosity were 0.49 g cm-3 and 49.14%, respectively. The geometric mean diameter, sphericity and surface area were obtained as 22.38 mm, 0.63, and 1577.84 mm2, respectively. The mean coefficients of static friction were measured as 0.27, 0.32 and 0.4 on plywood, galvanized iron steel, and glass surfaces, respectively.