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It's been 30 years and I still can't get over the fact that the French word for "potatoes" is "ground apples." Have The French never had an apple?

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Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sxan@midwest.social⁩ to ⁨showerthoughts@lemmy.world⁩

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    American: “Have french people never eaten a good apple?”

    Frenchman: “Have Americans never enjoyed a tasty potato?”

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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  • renzev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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 looks like a pine cone.

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    • NickKnight@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      italian tomatoes have entered the chat and agree with their golden apples.

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  • bluewing@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I grew up on a farm along a small river called the Pomme De Terre and we didn’t grow potatoes. But we did have a potato lifter to harvest the 1/2 acre or so we would grow for our own consumption.

    There was also a small county picnic area in the middle of nowhere by the same name. And no one knew why it was there.

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    • intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      So you had a potato lifter that just sat there, still and silent, in case you ever decided to grow 1/2 acre of potatoes?

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      • bluewing@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yeah, pretty much. It was a converted horse drawn implement so it was quite old and pretty worn. It did work, but us kids still had to walk behind it to pickup the potatoes it missed.

        And when you could muster a small army of 10 kids from 3 families, well you maybe didn’t need a potato lifter so much.

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  • vxx@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Grosse Pomme is New York

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    • SplashJackson@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Hans Grosse

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  • sorval_the_eeter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    [deleted]
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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Whew. Thanks for the /s. That was a comprehensive list of French stereotypes, though. Bravo.

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  • Hildegarde@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    if you think ground apples isn’t an apt description, you’ve never eaten potatoes raw.

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    • Etterra@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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  • dogsoahC@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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?

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I pronounce is Pin-eap-ples, just to avoid this very thing.

      But, at least they’re fruit.

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    • Machinist@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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  • pyre@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Case in point: Pomegranate. pomme = apple or more generically fruit, granate = grenade. It’s a shrapnel apple. Apt description if you’ve ever eaten one.

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  • MTK@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Not just French

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  • hakunawazo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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:
    Image
    Source (German): die-kartoffel.de/…/kartoffel-deutsche-dialekte/

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    • pfannkuchen_gesicht@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’m not sure this map is accurate. I have never heard any of the terms that this maps claims to be used in the region I come from.

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    • EffortlessEffluvium@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      And french fries are Pommes Frites.

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    • Jolteon@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      So calling someone a potato in German is a slur?

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      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Semi.
        Another kind of slur is calling “spießig” (dunno the english word. Google suggests stuffy or bourgeois) Germans “Almans” which is essentially the french word for german people but if you call a german “Alman” it’s kinda an insult (unless you own it).

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    • lugal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Nudel?? NUDEL???

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  • MisterD@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Meanwhile in Quebec, they call them patates

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  • pseudo@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    We also have a potato-like : word “patate”. “Pomme de terre” is déformation of “parmetière” from the name of M.Parmentier who introduce potatoes to the french population.

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    • lugal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      People seem to believe this so let me clarify:

      Literally, “apple of [the] earth”. The word pomme used to mean “fruit” in Old French. The French construction originated, as calques, Dutch aardappel, Icelandic jarðepli, Persian سیب‌زمینی (sib-zamini), Modern Hebrew תפוח אדמה (tapúakh adamá), the rare English earthapple, German Erdapfel, etc.

      wiktionary

      In fact, apple was a catch all term for fruits in many languages from time to time, hence pineapple (originally meaning pinecone, later used for the exotic fruit because of similarity) or German Apfelsine (orange, literally apple from China), …

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    • cazssiew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s actually not true, ‘ground apple’ is a common name for different sorts of tubers in a number of different languages, going back to the latin ‘malum terrae’.

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    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That is news to me. Never thought to dig too deeply into my French studies in middle and high school (two decades ago), and so “apple of the earth” was just appropriate. Like, yeah, why wouldn’t it be apple of the earth?

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Really? That’s fantastic! I didn’t know that. How awesome!

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      • lugal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Image

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  • garbagebagel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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.

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    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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      • Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Four twenties ten and seven. That’s four goddamn numbers in a row!

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  • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    And orange is a Chinese apple

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    • intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I refer to my skillet as my “fire apple”

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  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Herdöpfel (stove/cooking apple) in Swiss german.

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  • viking@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Have a look at how some early apple varieties looked like, before they were cultivated:

    birdsongorchards.com/…/welcome-to-wondrous-divers…

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    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Thank you. Now does make more sense to call potatoes ground apples. Going start calling them that and confuse the kids.

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    • pseudo@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They looks identifical to nowday apple from a non-profesional perspective. Except the Hawaïan ones, I never saw a apple with pink flesh.

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Tree-potatoes!

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  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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…

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    • Hagdos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      But these aren’t found in Western Europe

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      • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Neither were potatoes until they came to the Americas.

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  • starbrite@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think this came from the fact that if you bit into an apple and a raw potato while holding your nose, they’d have the same exact taste and texture

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s an interesting theory. Maybe ancient humans didn’t have a sense of taste.

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      • WoahWoah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Ancient humans? Europe didn’t have potatoes until they were imported.

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  • thevoidzero@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Well apple is succulent stem of apple tree. Potato is succulent root of potato plant. Root is stem inside ground. Q.E.D.

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  • BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Well Italians call tomatoes golden apples

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    • lugal@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      While having two words for blue because “they look different”

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  • scroll_responsibly@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Counter point:

    Image

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    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Ananas

      Bananas

      :-/

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      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.

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      • Enkrod@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        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

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      • scroll_responsibly@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Is this a copypasta?

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    • Unimperfect@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      In Castellano (Spanish from Spain), it’s called piña.

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      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Also what I was taught in US Spanish classes.

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      • raef@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Spanish in other places, too—piña colada, anyone?

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  • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Let the language without sin cast the first stone.

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    • intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      ::: lanzars una piedra :::

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  • Wiz@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    How to the French tell the difference between fried apples and fried potatoes?

    Maybe context.

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    • sxan@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Hey, that’s a good point. Fried apples might me sweeter than fried potatoes, but they’d be much more similar than in other forms. Frying tends to bring out the sweetness in carbs.

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      • Wiz@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        My point was, I think they would both be pommes frites.

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    • Obi@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Fried apples? Maybe that’s a Texas thing, or Scottish, but it wouldn’t be a source of confusion in France because they’d take your passport away if you tried frying an apple.

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      • Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Fried apples are sliced into small pieces and cooked with butter, cinnamon, and stuff. They’re quite good. It’s not a battered and deep fried thing. Frying covers a large range of cooking styles.

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      • SouthFresh@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        But only an apple they’d picked themselves or received from a trusted supplier with legible labeling, since it otherwise might be a potato.

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      • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        French people do eat apple beignets, which are basically fried apples.

        If you’ve never had one before, apple beignets are easy to make and delicious, plenty of recipes around.

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  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Have you ever bitten into a road apple?

    People come up with funny names for things sometimes.

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  • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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

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  • Mechaguana@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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

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  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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  • ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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

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  • Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There was a time when “pomme” was used to describe any fruit.

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  • shneancy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

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

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