Have a look at how some early apple varieties looked like, before they were cultivated:
https://birdsongorchards.com/pages/welcome-to-wondrous-diversity-of-heirloom-apples
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
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Let the language which is without sin cast the first stone.
Herdöpfel (stove/cooking apple) in Swiss german. Kartoffel in germany. Guess there's some variety, since it's a relatively new crop.
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...
Look, we're talking people who call ninety-nine “four twenty ten nine”; you can't expect them to name things properly.
To be fair, English has a bit of that too if you look at the first 20 digits
One, two, three... Eleven, twelve, thirteen... Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three... Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three...
If English was fully decimal the teens would simply be "Onety-one, onety-two, onety-three" but it's not because fuck following conventions!
Winner. I'd forgotten about that.
Something thankfully not all French-speaking countries agree. But the ground apple is pretty much universal. The alternative "patate" is also widely used,
Stuff from the "new world" (Americas) often got some weird names. Like the "Indian chickens" (turkeys).
Edit: I misunderstood
I misunderstood
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"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.
“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.
It also explain why we here in the Nordics call oranges "appelsin", as in a "Chinese apple".
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But… we’re talking French and Adam and Eve was written in Hebrew. Is it the same for Hebrew?
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That's a bingo.
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Well apple is succulent stem of apple tree. Potato is succulent root of potato plant. Root is stem inside ground. Q.E.D.
The English for "ananas" is "pineapple", did the English really think they grew on pine trees?
Pineapples are a freak fruit though.They grow on some kind of weird weed like some kind of joke.
Fun fact: no one knows why us squid are called that in English and no other language calls us anything like that.
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"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".
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Have you ever bitten into a road apple?
People come up with funny names for things sometimes.
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good tasting apples are a relatively recent thing. They are one of the fruits where a good tasting one is rare and then has to propagated with grafts. Apples that grow from seed are not that great and before a certain point was mainly turned into cider and vinegar and such.
Don't forget Calvados n_n
Some German speakers say "Erdapfel" which is literally "earth apple."
In Dutch, a potato is called aardappel, which literally translates to "earth apple" (aarde meaning "earth" and appel meaning "apple").
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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.
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How to the French tell the difference between fried apples and fried potatoes?
Maybe context.
Hey, that's a good point. Fried apples might me sweeter than fried potatoes, but they'd be much more similar than in other forms. Frying tends to bring out the sweetness in carbs.
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Fried apples? Maybe that's a Texas thing, or Scottish, but it wouldn't be a source of confusion in France because they'd take your passport away if you tried frying an apple.
Fried apples are sliced into small pieces and cooked with butter, cinnamon, and stuff. They're quite good. It's not a battered and deep fried thing. Frying covers a large range of cooking styles.
French people do eat apple beignets, which are basically fried apples.
If you've never had one before, apple beignets are easy to make and delicious, plenty of recipes around.
That's right I guess, but at least in a beignet there's a bit of preparation involved, I was picturing just whole fried apples or maybe like french fries but made of apple, but you're right I guess beignet counts.
But only an apple they’d picked themselves or received from a trusted supplier with legible labeling, since it otherwise might be a potato.