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I agree with you! But while we're being pedantic, I should complain that I don't like "tomato/fruit" analogy since the categories "fruits" and "vegetables" are
by teach 7y ago
I agree with you! But while we're being pedantic, I should complain that I don't like "tomato/fruit" analogy since the categories "fruits" and "vegetables" are not mutually exclusive.
There's no botanical definition of "vegetable" like there is with "fruit". So it's sort of disingenuous to complain about edible plant categorization while using the social/cultural sense of the first word but not the other.
> In theory tomatoes are not vegetables.
I don't think I agree with that sentence. "Did you know that a tomato is technically a fruit?" is true and interesting if you've never heard it before.
On the other hand "Did you know that a tomato isn't a vegetable; it's technically a fruit!" <- This is false. Fruits are only not vegetables if you use the social/cultural sense of both words.
- umvi 7y agoI was struggling with coming up with a perfect analogy, but this phenomenon basically happens when a word becomes ubiquitous to mean an entire class of something, like how "Kleenix" means "tissue" or "Coke" means "carbonated beverage" (depending on your location in the US). Author: "Coke QR" HN: "That's not Coke, that's Sprite!" dang: changes title to "Carbonated Beverage QR"
- teach 7y agoI feel like the word "crypto" is similarly being pushed away from its original meaning.
- boatswain 7y agoThe US Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes are considered vegetables for tax purposes under the Tariff of 1883 in Nix v Hedden.
- teach 7y agoSo now there's a legal definition of one of those words to confuse the issue even further! :)