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> After speaking to a friend, they told me I had probably received a “lemon” unit (i.e. faulty from the beginning). To be honest, I’m not quite sure where the t
by jasongill 5y ago
> After speaking to a friend, they told me I had probably received a “lemon” unit (i.e. faulty from the beginning). To be honest, I’m not quite sure where the term comes from.
The term comes from the automobile industry, where a "lemon" is a new car that has some kind of issue so severe that it cannot be reasonably repaired under warranty and the buyer can try to seek a refund or replacement vehicle.
Wikipedia says that the term originally comes from early 20th century slang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_(automobile) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_(automobile)
- mixmastamyk 5y agohttps://www.etymonline.com/word/lemon https://www.etymonline.com/word/lemon lemon (n.2) "worthless thing, disappointment, booby prize," 1909, American English slang; from lemon (n.1), perhaps via a criminal slang sense of "a person who is a loser, a simpleton," perhaps an image of someone a sharper can "suck the juice out of." A pool hall hustle was called a lemon game (1908); while to hand someone a lemon was British slang (1906) for "to pass off a sub-standard article as a good one." Or it simply may be a metaphor for something which leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. Specific sense of "second-hand car in poor condition" is by 1931. "You won't get a lemon… from Toyota of Orange." :-D