2143: Productivity of 'fruit' Oct 27, 2020

The idea of fruit having a more generic sense of 'productivity' is fairly obvious considering phrases like "fruit of the womb" (children) and its tongue-in-cheek offshoot "fruit of the loom" (clothing) or just 'fruitful' all having meanings not relating to tree-fruit. Indeed, etymologically this is true many times over considering words like the Latin 'frui' (enjoy), German 'brauchen' (to need), and so forth all originate from the Proto-IndoEuropean root *bʰruHg- (to benefit from). This pattern of success, enjoyment, and physical productive creation exists across many other languages. The sense in English for many centuries was anything that came from the ground, including vegetables, which, like with apples, gained more specific meaning over time. NB the English 'blade'—for both swords and leaves, as in grass—originated with the botanical meaning, and shares an etymological root with this very productive 'fruit'.