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[-] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 hours ago

Have you ever bitten into a road apple?

People come up with funny names for things sometimes.

[-] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 26 points 6 hours ago

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

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 hour ago

Winner. I'd forgotten about that.

[-] ours@lemmy.world 5 points 5 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 10 points 6 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.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 71 points 11 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 4 hours ago

So this means moonshine is apple juice?

[-] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 24 points 9 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 4 hours ago

That's a bingo.

[-] Mechaguana@programming.dev 6 points 7 hours ago

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

[-] 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 27 points 11 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 36 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)
[-] raef@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Spanish conveniently missing

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 41 points 12 hours ago

It's their superficial resemblance to pinecones.

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[-] 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?

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

Is english known for trying to avoid confusion?

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 19 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

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

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 6 points 9 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 8 hours ago

I love grapefruiting

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 5 points 8 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.

[-] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 36 points 12 hours ago

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

[-] Haus@kbin.earth 17 points 12 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 7 points 11 hours ago

Unsurprisingly, similar for us in Afrikaans.

"Aartappel"

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

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

[-] Davel23@fedia.io 13 points 11 hours ago

Wait until you hear about pomegranates.

[-] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 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 9 hours ago

Well are you going to tell us?

[-] MissJinx@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

Wait until you hear about 90 pomegranates

[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago

99 luftpomegranates go by

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 hours ago

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

[-] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 hours ago

four twentie

Ayy lmao.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

And that's terrible...

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 14 points 13 hours ago

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

[-] Donut@leminal.space 12 points 12 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 11 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 10 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 12 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
169 points (94.7% liked)

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