“apple” used to be a generic term for fruit. So it’s actually “fruit of the earth”, the French are poetic like that
Also apples used to be small, tart, and acidic.
You wouldn’t eat them as a dessert but as a basis for brewing alcohol.
It’s wild how much fruits changed in recent times.
So much so that most zoo are stoppimg giving them to animals and switched to more leafy greens. They have gotten so sugary that they promoted tooth decay and obesity.
Than you, I was going to say modern apples have a taste and texture nothing like apples when this name was created.
The English for “ananas” is “pineapple”, did the English really think they grew on pine trees?
It’s their superficial resemblance to pinecones.
Spanish conveniently missing
And anthough it might be correct, I’ve never head anyone say mañana in Basque. We just use piña(pinia)
Here’s how the creation of the graphic went:
- Create a binary
- Ignore vast majority (of people working with subject)
- slap together chart, cherrypicking
- Gloat
Fun fact: no one knows why us squid are called that in English and no other language calls us anything like that.
“Apple” is Old English for “fruit”, not specifically apple.
And apparently “pineapple” for the tropical fruit predates “pine cone”, OE used “pine nut”.
Earliest use of “pineapple” is 14th century translation for “pomegranate”.
Probably to avoid confusion with bananas?
Oh you can’t even imagine the amount of times I put a pineapple up there.
Removed by mod
There is no such thing as a pineapple tree. That’s an AI image.
Pineapples grow in an even more ridiculous way.
👆 ai detected
Those look closer to durian than pineapples tbh.
Durian have a far worse reputation than their actual reality. Surströmming, on the other hand, over-achieves its reputation.
Pineapples are a freak fruit though.They grow on some kind of weird weed like some kind of joke.
Counter point:
In Castellano (Spanish from Spain), it’s called piña.
Spanish in other places, too—piña colada, anyone?
The takeaway here is, the rest of the world uses different words than the continents where it comes from
Also what I was taught in US Spanish classes.
You can’t include English in any rational discussion about languages. It breaks every rule, and isn’t one language, but a pidgin of three or four. It’s a bastard of a language, and what-about-ism involving English is so trivial it’s not worth debating. You can always find a worse example of any language linguistic stupidity in English.
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
Writer James D. Nicoll
Is this a copypasta?
It is now
The James Nicoll quote is better - use that instead.
Ananas
Bananas
:-/
In a lot of languages the word for apple used to refer to all kinds of fruits, particularly new ones from more or less exotic lands. Pineapples also don’t look much like apples, do they?
Pomme de terre (IIRC) is a sad version of a underground apple.
Pineapples look like a pinecone but with a sweet fruit inside. Makes sense to me.
Then again horse apples, i.e., horse shit doesn’t taste great at all. Then again, again: horse apples, the Osage Orange fruit, are inedible. Osage Orange is neither an apple or orange tree.
English 'tis a silly language.
I pronounce is Pin-eap-ples, just to avoid this very thing.
But, at least they’re fruit.
isn’t apple used in many languages as a generic term for fruit?.. it’s not like pineapple has anything to do with apples either.
if you think ground apples isn’t an apt description, you’ve never eaten potatoes raw.
Here’s something else to gnaw at your brain: “corn” used to be a generic term for any cereal grain, and now only refers to the one group of crops. Also we now (mostly) only use “cereal” to describe the stuff you have for breakfast with milk. Which used to be just shitty puffed grains but now also includes all kinds of flakes and processed nonsense.
Recently I watched an press event with a Canadian politician, who was switching between French and English as we must sometimes. He was talking about a bag of apples (which his colleague was holding) costing a stupid amount of money. He made the mistake of saying a bag of potatoes, which i found fucking hilarious as I speak both languages and understand the mistake. Unfortunately for him, the people criticising him were morons and were like WHY WOULD HE SAY POTATOES IS HE STUPID.
Franglais is my language of choice after several drinks in any French speaking country. I am from Jersey, New, so it’s the best I can do with my education.
Four twenties ten and seven. That’s four goddamn numbers in a row!
The franglais in me screams that neufant ought to be acceptable. I’m sure Canadians are saying it, who knows what language they really speak.
Let the language which is without sin cast the first stone.
::: lanzars una piedra :::
I thought it was more “apples of the Earth”, n’est-ce pas?
Yeah, I wasn’t going for transliteration. “Apples of Earth” doesn’t convey the same concept.
Not really cause then it would be “pommes de la terre”.
For the record, some of us also use the word “patate” which is straight up the equivalent of potato.
good tasting apples are a relatively recent thing. They are one of the fruits where a good tasting one is rare and then has to propagated with grafts. Apples that grow from seed are not that great and before a certain point was mainly turned into cider and vinegar and such.
Don’t forget Calvados n_n
How recent? Like, New World recent, or Christianity recent, or the-invention-of-writing recent?
I think not much older than the new world. 1700’s or so and I don’t think there was widespread cultivation until the 20th century.
Johnny Appleseed was a real guy, but he was doing his thing in the late 1700’s. Apples from grafting were pretty good eating, by then; trees grown from seed were mostly only good for making cider.
yeah and that gets back to ground apples. if people are used to apples in cooking and making alcohol but not so much munch on it, numy, numy. I could see the ground apple thing.
In Germany they are called Kartoffeln (which is also a slur for the Germans itself).
But potatoes are also called Erdäpfel (ground apples) or in southern dialect Krombire (bent pear).
More variants here:
Source (German): https://die-kartoffel.de/wissen/schon-gewusst/kartoffel-deutsche-dialekte/So calling someone a potato in German is a slur?
And french fries are Pommes Frites. Fried apples
Nudel?? NUDEL???
Why is this weird? “Apple” used to be the generic word for fruit in many different languages, it wasn’t until recently that it took on the meaning of a specific type of fruit. I don’t think calling potatoes “fruit of the earth” is at all strange. The English equivalent to this is the word “pineapple” – a fruit that kind of looks like a pine cone.
italian tomatoes have entered the chat and agree with their golden apples.
I think “ground apples” would better apply to jicama.
Dug up from the ground, somewhat sweet, can be eaten raw or cooked, apple-like in texture…
But these aren’t found in Western Europe
Neither were potatoes until they came to the Americas.
Yeah, but that’s hundreds of years ago and they’re a staple food now. Unlike Jicamas, where I had to Google what that even is.
So, linguistically not really comparable
Well Italians call tomatoes golden apples
While having two words for blue because “they look different”
American: “Have french people never eaten a good apple?”
Frenchman: “Have Americans never enjoyed a tasty potato?”
Potatoes are indeed tasty. Some varieties are even sweet-ish. I can’t say I’ve had potatoes that were as sweet as apples, without the addition of a lot of sugar.
