1872: berry and apple Jan 30, 2020

Apples have been discussed here many times before, but it is not enough to just say it was a generic term for fruit. Almost any kind of produce, with the notable exception of berries, could be called an apple—or at least in compounds—in vegetables like cucumbers or 'earth-apples', actual fruits like bananas, 'apple of paradise', or even some nuts. Etymologically speaking, 'melon' and 'pumpkin' too have appley Indo-European roots (more on this another day). This is why you may see 'berry'—which was also somewhat generic—referred to as "the only native fruit name" other than 'apples', even if other fruits have roots in Old English.

Support Word Facts on Patreon.com/wordfacts, and become the apple of my eye.