Counter point:
"apple" used to be a generic term for fruit. So it's actually "fruit of the earth", the French are poetic like that
“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.
That's a bingo.
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.
The English for "ananas" is "pineapple", did the English really think they grew on pine trees?
"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".
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?
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 kind of looks like a pine cone.
italian tomatoes have entered the chat and agree with their golden apples.
if you think ground apples isn't an apt description, you've never eaten potatoes raw.
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.
Look, we're talking people who call ninety-nine “four twenty ten nine”; you can't expect them to name things properly.
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).
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.
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.
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.
American: "Have french people never eaten a good apple?"
Frenchman: "Have Americans never enjoyed a tasty potato?"
Some German speakers say "Erdapfel" which is literally "earth apple."
In Dutch, a potato is called aardappel, which literally translates to "earth apple" (aarde meaning "earth" and appel meaning "apple").
Have a look at how some early apple varieties looked like, before they were cultivated:
https://birdsongorchards.com/pages/welcome-to-wondrous-diversity-of-heirloom-apples
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:
Source (German): https://die-kartoffel.de/wissen/schon-gewusst/kartoffel-deutsche-dialekte/
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.
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.
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?
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.
oh, I see you meant you didn’t grow potatoes for the market
Ah my bad. Back in those days, having a small one row potato lifter was not unusual for a farm where I grew up. Potatoes were a staple food because they could be stored easily until the next harvest. You would grow a half acre, sometimes more just for your own needs. Along with a lot of other vegetables to be home canned or stored.
Self sufficiency is important when you were poor.
Not just French
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