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.
I think that was the shark-jumping Republican moment, when a bad trend suddenly became a free-fall into the idiocy the party is now.
“apple” used to be a generic term for fruit. So it’s actually “fruit of the earth”, the French are poetic like that
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.
Than you, I was going to say modern apples have a taste and texture nothing like apples when this name was created.
So this means moonshine is apple juice?
“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.
But… we’re talking French and Adam and Eve was written in Hebrew. Is it the same for Hebrew?
Literally yes, ground apple is potato in hebrew
Hebrew used a generic word for fruit, all languages translated that word as their version of apple which was generic at the time, and then much later, all languages changed the meaning of their word for apple, it’s not specific to French. The use of apple for one specific fruit is fairly recent - more recent than the King James Bible, even.
I don’t know what the word in Hebrew is and if it also changed its meaning since then, though.
That’s a bingo.
It also explain why we here in the Nordics call oranges “appelsin”, as in a “Chinese apple”.
Same in Dutch: sinaasappel
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.
If a narrative is not literally true, does that mean it has no truth value?
What is “truth value” supposed to mean?
Sorry, I wasn’t explaining myself well.
Just because a story isn’t factually true, doesn’t mean that it has no value, or negative value. There are other types of values which can supersede factual value:
- aesthetic
- symbolic
- ethical
- didactic
Truth isn’t always about facts. Sometimes factual statements can be used as a weapon of deceit.
There are other types of value, of course. It’s just funny to specifically call the apple out for being a myth. The entire story is a myth, so they could have made it a pomelo for all I care.
Not just French
Grosse Pomme is New York
Hans Grosse
American: “Have french people never eaten a good apple?”
Frenchman: “Have Americans never enjoyed a tasty potato?”
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.
Actually sounds like you’ve never had a fresh potato, pulled right out of the ground and eaten on the spot
I have never. Do they taste like apples?
No not at all but a good one has a nice crunch to it, kinda like a water chestnut, and they can make a nice snap sound like an apple
Oh. I’ve bitten into a potato before, just not one freshly and cruelly ripped from the warm breast of mother nature. I think they’re more similar to Asian Pears, of we’re making such comparisons, also not neatly as juicy.
Well Italians call tomatoes golden apples
While having two words for blue because “they look different”
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.
Four twenties ten and seven. That’s four goddamn numbers in a row!
The franglais in me screams that neufant ought to be acceptable. I’m sure Canadians are saying it, who knows what language they really speak.
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
That’s an interesting theory. Maybe ancient humans didn’t have a sense of taste.
Ancient humans? Europe didn’t have potatoes until they were imported from the Americas in the 1600s. Conversely, the Americas didn’t have apples. So it would basically be impossible for anyone before the Colombian exchange to have eaten both of these fruits.
I meant great-grandad.
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…
But these aren’t found in Western Europe
Neither were potatoes until they came to the Americas.
Yeah, but that’s hundreds of years ago and they’re a staple food now. Unlike Jicamas, where I had to Google what that even is.
So, linguistically not really comparable
Well apple is succulent stem of apple tree. Potato is succulent root of potato plant. Root is stem inside ground. Q.E.D.
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.
There was a time when “pomme” was used to name any fruit.
Now we just use fruit.
Unless, incident, you’re talking of a Chinese Grapefruit, also know as Pomelo.
I love grapefruiting
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.
I’ve been telling you for 30 years to get over it, maybe in 31 years 😢
Wait until you hear about pomegranates.
Wait until you hear about 90 pomegranates
99 luftpomegranates go by
Oh? Juicy gossip, is it?
Well are you going to tell us?
💣
I recently learned grenadine is called that because it used to be made from pomegranate juice, NOT because it was from Grenada.
