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[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 84 points 13 hours ago

The English for "ananas" is "pineapple", did the English really think they grew on pine trees?

[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 29 points 12 hours ago

"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".

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 37 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)
[-] raef@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Spanish conveniently missing

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 42 points 12 hours ago

It's their superficial resemblance to pinecones.

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 9 points 11 hours ago

It's a bit cherry picked, but only a bit, since there are a few languages that just copied the English word later on.
Japanese and Korean come to mind.

[-] this@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

That actually makes it funnier to me because ananas would be easier to pronounce in Japanese vs pineapple. Ananansu(u is silent) vs Painappuru.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago

Probably to avoid confusion with bananas?

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 1 points 18 minutes ago

Oh you can't even imagine the amount of times I put a pineapple up there.

[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 10 points 9 hours ago

Is english known for trying to avoid confusion?

this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
174 points (94.8% liked)

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