this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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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? (midwest.social)
submitted 3 weeks ago by sxan@midwest.social to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 137 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

The English for "ananas" is "pineapple", did the English really think they grew on pine trees?

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 66 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 69 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's their superficial resemblance to pinecones.

[–] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

That actually makes it funnier to me because ananas would be easier to pronounce in Japanese vs pineapple. Ananansu(u is silent) vs Painappuru.

[–] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 2 points 3 weeks ago

Oh absolutely!
They just had no ananas exposure beyond that from the Americans.

[–] raef@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Spanish conveniently missing

[–] fushuan@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

And anthough it might be correct, I've never head anyone say mañana in Basque. We just use piña(pinia)

[–] raef@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Here's how the creation of the graphic went:

  • Create a binary
  • Ignore vast majority (of people working with subject)
  • slap together chart, cherrypicking
  • Gloat
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 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 2 points 3 weeks ago

i call bullshit. its "abacaxi" in portuguese, not nanana

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 36 points 3 weeks 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".

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Probably to avoid confusion with bananas?

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 19 points 3 weeks ago

Is english known for trying to avoid confusion?

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh you can't even imagine the amount of times I put a pineapple up there.

[–] slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Here i go, imagining again.

[–] Shapillon@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Pineapples are a freak fruit though.They grow on some kind of weird weed like some kind of joke.