“apple” used to be a generic term for fruit. So it’s actually “fruit of the earth”, the French are poetic like that
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?
Submitted 3 weeks ago by sxan@midwest.social to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
shneancy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Isoprenoid@programming.dev 3 weeks 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.
Kushan@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
That’s a bingo.
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It also explain why we here in the Nordics call oranges “appelsin”, as in a “Chinese apple”.
Don_alForno@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Great! Can’t have myths about random fruit in this otherwise totally valid, reasonable and trustworthy story about a woman that was made from a man’s rib and talked to reptiles.
moistclump@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But… we’re talking French and Adam and Eve was written in Hebrew. Is it the same for Hebrew?
Shapillon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Than you, I was going to say modern apples have a taste and texture nothing like apples when this name was created.
Daze@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
So this means moonshine is apple juice?
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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).
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
To be fair, English has a bit of that too if you look at the first 20 digits
One, two, three… Eleven, twelve, thirteen… Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three… Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three…
If English was fully decimal the teens would simply be “Onety-one, onety-two, onety-three” but it’s not because fuck following conventions!
intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
If you say onety one again we’re gonna have problems
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
Winner. I’d forgotten about that.
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
Yeah, numbers in French are really weird.
Look, I’m not criticizing French, or the French. It was just one of those things that struck me when I was learning it, and it pops up at odd times.
scroll_responsibly@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks 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.
Enkrod@feddit.org 3 weeks 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
Unimperfect@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In Castellano (Spanish from Spain), it’s called piña.
raef@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Spanish in other places, too—piña colada, anyone?
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Also what I was taught in US Spanish classes.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ananas
Bananas
:-/
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Some German speakers say “Erdapfel” which is literally “earth apple.”
superkret@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
The Swabian word Grombira comes from literally “ground pear”
ElmarsonTheThird@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
“Grumbern” is the same in parts of Frankonia.
BonerMan@ani.social 3 weeks ago
Isnt that most common in Austria
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
That’s my understanding. Though I have only visited the Kartoffel regions myself.
Miphera@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m in Bavaria, and my grandparents used to say Erdapfel, though for any generations after that I’ve only ever heard them say Kartoffel.
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
It’s probably the Germans living near French, who’ve had bad influences.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 3 weeks ago
There was a time when “pomme” was used to describe any fruit.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Now we just use fruit.
Unless, incident, you’re talking of a Chinese Grapefruit, also know as Pomelo.
Noodle07@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I love grapefruiting
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
I didn’t know that. Still a little odd to consider a potato “fruit,” but then avocados and tomatoes are considered vegetables, when one’s a berry and the other’s a fruit.
garbagebagel@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
Dozzi92@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Four twenties ten and seven. That’s four goddamn numbers in a row!
dogsoahC@lemm.ee 3 weeks 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?
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
I pronounce is Pin-eap-ples, just to avoid this very thing.
But, at least they’re fruit.
Machinist@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
pyre@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks 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.
Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Let the language without sin cast the first stone.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
::: lanzars una piedra :::
viking@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Have a look at how some early apple varieties looked like, before they were cultivated:
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
Tree-potatoes!
Fredselfish@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Thank you. Now does make more sense to call potatoes ground apples. Going start calling them that and confuse the kids.
pseudo@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
They looks identifical to nowday apple from a non-profesional perspective. Except the Hawaïan ones, I never saw a apple with pink flesh.
cheese_greater@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I thought it was more “apples of the Earth”, n’est-ce pas?
Donut@leminal.space 3 weeks 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 weeks 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.
ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Too aard to pronounce
Cagi@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
No, it’s like how apple juice is jus de pomme.
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
Yeah, I wasn’t going for transliteration. “Apples of Earth” doesn’t convey the same concept.
CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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.
Hildegarde@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
if you think ground apples isn’t an apt description, you’ve never eaten potatoes raw.
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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/renzev@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Have you ever bitten into a road apple?
People come up with funny names for things sometimes.
ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Actually sounds like you’ve never had a fresh potato, pulled right out of the ground and eaten on the spot
pseudo@jlai.lu 3 weeks 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.
Mechaguana@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
They do make an apple sound when you crunch or slice them so i can see the link
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
eighty potatoes … french translation -> … “quatre-vingts pommes de terre” (four twenties of earth apples)
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
American: “Have french people never eaten a good apple?”
Frenchman: “Have Americans never enjoyed a tasty potato?”
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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…
BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Well Italians call tomatoes golden apples
superkret@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Have you ever had an apple of the sort they had when the word got its meaning?
They were closer to potatoes than you think.MTK@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not just French
MisterD@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Meanwhile in Quebec, they call them patates
BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
And orange is a Chinese apple
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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.
bluewing@lemm.ee 3 weeks 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.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Herdöpfel (stove/cooking apple) in Swiss german.
Blaze@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
The English for “ananas” is “pineapple”, did the English really think they grew on pine trees?
slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Image
Image
wewbull@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
It’s their superficial resemblance to pinecones.
lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 3 weeks 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.
raef@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Spanish conveniently missing
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Fun fact: no one knows why us squid are called that in English and no other language calls us anything like that.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
i call bullshit. its “abacaxi” in portuguese, not nanana
jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Probably to avoid confusion with bananas?
RandomVideos@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Is english known for trying to avoid confusion?
x00z@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Oh you can’t even imagine the amount of times I put a pineapple up there.
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
Maybe! Who knows what those crazy British were thinking. At least a pineapple is a fruit, and I can easily believe that the namers had never seen anything but crude drawings of a pineapple tree, and not having experience with palm trees, thought they looked most like pines.
Image
Or, maybe it’s derived from some misinterpretation of a Greek word, or something. English is a hodge-podge language of borrowed words.
NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There is no such thing as a pineapple tree. That’s an AI image.
Pineapples grow in an even more ridiculous way.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Pineapples don’t grow on trees. Take that A’I’ slop somewhere else.
RedStrider@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
👆 ai detected
sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Those look closer to durian than pineapples tbh.
recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
that image looks pretty crazy!😮
Shapillon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Pineapples are a freak fruit though.They grow on some kind of weird weed like some kind of joke.