Saturday, January 24, 2015

"Pineapple"


       As Connie had me bring home a pineapple the other day, it made me ask, "What does either pine or apple have to do with pineapple?"

       Apparently it's the look of the fruit, its resemblance to a pine cone that got the "pine" part of it.  How about "apple"?  Why not just "pinefruit"?  I don't know, but since "pine" can be traced back to Indo-European pele, meaning "fat," it's possible, though there's almost no likeness to an apple, it was a way of saying, "This is delicious like an apple, but a much fatter piece of fruit."

       Speculative at best, but it's funny how we like to have answers to questions like these, even if they're a bit "wild blue yonder"ish.

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