4 ms·

any reason why rasberries and strawberries have the words berries in them then?

by leeshire 7y ago

dvh 7y ago
For the same reason Stonehenge have henge in it's name
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  For reference, the "henge" in Stonehenge means a gallows, and is thought to be a reference to the shape of the structures. (What do you do on a gallows? You hang.)
  - blowski 7y ago
    Another theory is that it refers to the way the top stone "hinges" on the bottom two. Nobody is certain about the etymology.
gherkinnn 7y ago
Both are red, small, sweet, and grow in bushes and shrubs. It’s fair to assume they’re related. Before science came along.
JamesBarney 7y ago
The world "berry" and "fruit" have both a technical botanist definition, and a culinary definition. Like okra is a fruit from a botany perspective but not a culinary one. If you asked for a fruit smoothie and received an okra smoothie on I imagine you wouldn't be happy.
- blowski 7y ago
  My gosh - Okra smoothie is actually a thing! That must taste... interesting. https://www.thespruceeats.com/juice-and-smoothie-recipe-with-okra-2078327 https://www.thespruceeats.com/juice-and-smoothie-recipe-with...
thaumasiotes 7y ago
The word "berry" goes back to proto-Germanic. Outside the context of botany, it means "small fruit". (And even in the 9th century, it meant "small fruit", though at the time it was more strongly associated with grapes than it is now.) Carl Linnaeus lived in the 18th century. The botanical sense of "berry" developed from the ordinary sense -- almost certainly because someone was investigating "what do all these berries have in common?", and picked a trait that identified the largest number of small fruit. You can see the same thing happening with "fish". Starfish and jellyfish are not "fish" in a taxonomic sense, but they are things that live in the water. In Chinese, octopuses and crocodiles are also "fish". (章鱼 and 鳄鱼, where 鱼 by itself is "fish".)
- mcv 7y ago
  In Dutch, whales ("walvis") are fish. But jellyfish and starfish aren't. Squids ("inktvis") are.

any reason why rasberries and strawberries have the words berries in them then?

dvh 7y ago

For the same reason Stonehenge have henge in it's name

thaumasiotes 7y ago
For reference, the "henge" in Stonehenge means a gallows, and is thought to be a reference to the shape of the structures. (What do you do on a gallows? You hang.)
- blowski 7y ago
  Another theory is that it refers to the way the top stone "hinges" on the bottom two. Nobody is certain about the etymology.

gherkinnn 7y ago

Both are red, small, sweet, and grow in bushes and shrubs. It’s fair to assume they’re related. Before science came along.

JamesBarney 7y ago

The world "berry" and "fruit" have both a technical botanist definition, and a culinary definition. Like okra is a fruit from a botany perspective but not a culinary one. If you asked for a fruit smoothie and received an okra smoothie on I imagine you wouldn't be happy.

blowski 7y ago
My gosh - Okra smoothie is actually a thing! That must taste... interesting. https://www.thespruceeats.com/juice-and-smoothie-recipe-with-okra-2078327 https://www.thespruceeats.com/juice-and-smoothie-recipe-with...

thaumasiotes 7y ago

The word "berry" goes back to proto-Germanic. Outside the context of botany, it means "small fruit". (And even in the 9th century, it meant "small fruit", though at the time it was more strongly associated with grapes than it is now.) Carl Linnaeus lived in the 18th century. The botanical sense of "berry" developed from the ordinary sense -- almost certainly because someone was investigating "what do all these berries have in common?", and picked a trait that identified the largest number of small fruit. You can see the same thing happening with "fish". Starfish and jellyfish are not "fish" in a taxonomic sense, but they are things that live in the water. In Chinese, octopuses and crocodiles are also "fish". (章鱼 and 鳄鱼, where 鱼 by itself is "fish".)

mcv 7y ago
In Dutch, whales ("walvis") are fish. But jellyfish and starfish aren't. Squids ("inktvis") are.