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The Etymology of Berries

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    The Etymology of Berries

    Had a fascinating conversation with a fellow traveller this morning, in fact it was such an engaging discussion that I nearly forgot to get out at Salisbury.

    The topic of our discourse was what qualifies a fruit to be a berry?

    We're all familiar with common edible berries that we buy from Waitrose, such as strawberries and raspberries, but why are these called berries and grapes, for example, are not?

    Owing to our conversation being curtailed by the train arriving at my destination, we never satisfactorily concluded our debate but I believe we were on the cusp of a reasonable hypothesis, to wit:

    To qualify as a berry the fruit must be rotund in its morphology and its dimensions must lie within certain parameters.

    This clears up our grape as it is not round and nobody can postulate that an apple is a berry as the magnitude of its dimensions exceeds certain bounds.

    This does, however, leave the awkward question of the raspberry/strawberry axis.
    In my mind they are incorrectly deemed to be berries. This is not unusual in the world of edible produce; indeed the strawberry isn't a true fruit as its seeds are not contained within the carpel. Furthermore , why is a tomato considered a vegetable when it us a fruit?

    These anomalies aside, I believe our definition is a true scientific definition of a berry. I can't wait until tomorrow when we get to discuss the size constraints in qualification to be a berry!

    #2
    At what point do you take people out the population and force psychiatric help on them?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by gricerboy View Post
      Had a fascinating conversation with a fellow traveller this morning, in fact it was such an engaging discussion that I nearly forgot to get out at Salisbury.

      The topic of our discourse was what qualifies a fruit to be a berry?

      We're all familiar with common edible berries that we buy from Waitrose, such as strawberries and raspberries, but why are these called berries and grapes, for example, are not?

      Owing to our conversation being curtailed by the train arriving at my destination, we never satisfactorily concluded our debate but I believe we were on the cusp of a reasonable hypothesis, to wit:

      To qualify as a berry the fruit must be rotund in its morphology and its dimensions must lie within certain parameters.

      This clears up our grape as it is not round and nobody can postulate that an apple is a berry as the magnitude of its dimensions exceeds certain bounds.

      This does, however, leave the awkward question of the raspberry/strawberry axis.
      In my mind they are incorrectly deemed to be berries. This is not unusual in the world of edible produce; indeed the strawberry isn't a true fruit as its seeds are not contained within the carpel. Furthermore , why is a tomato considered a vegetable when it us a fruit?

      These anomalies aside, I believe our definition is a true scientific definition of a berry. I can't wait until tomorrow when we get to discuss the size constraints in qualification to be a berry!
      Gooseberries are the same size as a grape.

      HTH
      So much more than just another sockie

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by minestrone View Post
        At what point do you take people out the population and force psychiatric help on them?
        Can't we just shoot him instead?

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by zeitghost
          HTH.
          So in other words, Groperboy is completely wrong?

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by gricerboy View Post
            Had a fascinating conversation with a fellow traveller this morning, in fact it was such an engaging discussion that I nearly forgot to get out at Salisbury.

            The topic of our discourse was what qualifies a fruit to be a berry?

            We're all familiar with common edible berries that we buy from Waitrose, such as strawberries and raspberries, but why are these called berries and grapes, for example, are not?

            Owing to our conversation being curtailed by the train arriving at my destination, we never satisfactorily concluded our debate but I believe we were on the cusp of a reasonable hypothesis, to wit:

            To qualify as a berry the fruit must be rotund in its morphology and its dimensions must lie within certain parameters.

            This clears up our grape as it is not round and nobody can postulate that an apple is a berry as the magnitude of its dimensions exceeds certain bounds.

            This does, however, leave the awkward question of the raspberry/strawberry axis.
            In my mind they are incorrectly deemed to be berries. This is not unusual in the world of edible produce; indeed the strawberry isn't a true fruit as its seeds are not contained within the carpel. Furthermore , why is a tomato considered a vegetable when it us a fruit?

            These anomalies aside, I believe our definition is a true scientific definition of a berry. I can't wait until tomorrow when we get to discuss the size constraints in qualification to be a berry!
            <sniff>

            Not sure about this one. Most likely a sockie. Can I see your ticket please, just to be sure?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by zeitghost
              HTH.
              Well that's just ridiculous. They are postulating that a banana is a berry?
              I'm guessing the source of this heresy is from the other side if the Atlantic.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by zeitghost
                Take it up with the botanists.
                I think he already does.
                Knock first as I might be balancing my chakras.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by zeitghost
                  Fragaria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                  has interesting things to say about strawberries.

                  Apparently, they're not berries at all, but are actually classified as an achene indehiscent fruit*.



                  * I have no idea what that means.

                  Hmmm, very, very interesting. This would appear to back up my earlier assertion.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by zeitghost
                    [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana]Bananas grow pointing up, not hanging down.
                    Yes, I don't think I've ever seen one hanging down before.

                    Comment

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