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[-] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 points 38 minutes ago

Have you ever bitten into a road apple?

People come up with funny names for things sometimes.

[-] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 3 hours ago

Look, we're talking people who call ninety-nine “four twenty ten nine”; you can't expect them to name things properly.

[-] ours@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

Something thankfully not all French-speaking countries agree. But the ground apple is pretty much universal. The alternative "patate" is also widely used,

Stuff from the "new world" (Americas) often got some weird names. Like the "Indian chickens" (turkeys).

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 6 points 3 hours ago

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.

[-] Mechaguana@programming.dev 5 points 4 hours ago

They do make an apple sound when you crunch or slice them so i can see the link

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 60 points 7 hours ago

"apple" used to be a generic term for fruit. So it's actually "fruit of the earth", the French are poetic like that

[-] Daze@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

So this means moonshine is apple juice?

[-] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 21 points 6 hours ago

“apple” used to be a generic term for fruit.

Oh, that explains the myth that Adam and Eve at an apple, when a specific fruit is never mentioned.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/apple

[-] Kushan@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 1 hour ago

That's a bingo.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

Well now "freedom fries" makes more sense. You know, like how apple pie is assosiated with the usa? So now it's freedom fries......anyone remember freedom fries?

......ok, no. It was always just stupid.

[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 74 points 9 hours ago

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

[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 23 points 8 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 30 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)
[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 36 points 9 hours ago

It's their superficial resemblance to pinecones.

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 9 points 7 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 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 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 5 points 8 hours ago

Probably to avoid confusion with bananas?

[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 8 points 5 hours ago

Is english known for trying to avoid confusion?

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 17 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

There was a time when "pomme" was used to name any fruit.

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 hours ago

Now we just use fruit.

Unless, incident, you're talking of a Chinese Grapefruit, also know as Pomelo.

[-] Noodle07@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

I love grapefruiting

[-] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 10 points 7 hours ago

Actually sounds like you've never had a fresh potato, pulled right out of the ground and eaten on the spot

[-] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 33 points 9 hours ago

Some German speakers say "Erdapfel" which is literally "earth apple."

[-] Haus@kbin.earth 15 points 9 hours ago

In Dutch, a potato is called aardappel, which literally translates to "earth apple" (aarde meaning "earth" and appel meaning "apple").

[-] HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

Unsurprisingly, similar for us in Afrikaans.

"Aartappel"

[-] superkret@feddit.org 4 points 9 hours ago

The Swabian word Grombira comes from literally "ground pear"

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[-] Davel23@fedia.io 13 points 8 hours ago

Wait until you hear about pomegranates.

[-] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 hours ago

I recently learned grenadine is called that because it used to be made from pomegranate juice, NOT because it was from Grenada.

[-] tyler@programming.dev 3 points 6 hours ago

Well are you going to tell us?

[-] MissJinx@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

Wait until you hear about 90 pomegranates

[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

99 luftpomegranates go by

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 10 points 8 hours ago

eighty potatoes ..... french translation -> ... "quatre-vingts pommes de terre" (four twenties of earth apples)

[-] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 hours ago

four twentie

Ayy lmao.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

And that's terrible...

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 14 points 10 hours ago

I thought it was more "apples of the Earth", n'est-ce pas?

[-] Donut@leminal.space 12 points 9 hours ago

Yup, pommes de terre. In Dutch is "aardappel", which is more literally earthapple. But I will add, the apple part isn't referring to the fruit, but means more like "a spherical object".

Also the French used aardappel to create the word pomme de terre for it in 1716, as they couldn't pronounce the Dutch word.

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 3 points 7 hours ago

as they couldn't pronounce the Dutch word

I mean I can't blame them, the language's phonosyntactics are very different from French, it's hard to pronounce in general and sounds awful to boot.

[-] Donut@leminal.space 3 points 7 hours ago

It's funny how Dutch doesn't shy away from loaning French words, despite the difference. Examples are chauffeur, etalage, cadeau, auto and medaille.

I don't agree that aardappel is hard to pronounce in general if you're an English speaker though. Check it out: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/aardappel

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[-] Cagi@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 hours ago

No, it's like how apple juice is jus de pomme.

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this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
145 points (94.5% liked)

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