The Etymology of Berries

[Churchill]

WHS

And WTF is



all about?

He was probably having a five-fingered shuffle or "Doing the Wilmslow" as it's become known.

[gricerboy]

Hey Churchie

[Zippy]

He was probably having a five-fingered shuffle or "Doing the Wilmslow" as it's become known.

My money's on a liquid lunch.

[Churchill]

Hey Churchie

Hello Threaded.

[Mich the Tester]

my dangleberries are usually round, so their may be something in that. not sure where the seeds are though. miles away, if theyve got any sense.

If a dangleberry were to contain a seed, would that qualify it as a fruit?

[OwlHoot]

If a dangleberry were to contain a seed, would that qualify it as a fruit?

If you sat in a compost heap for two weeks, yes.

[wurzel]

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!

Would I be opening a Pandora's box if I were to bring currants into the fray?

[EternalOptimist]

Would I be opening a Pandora's box if I were to bring currants into the fray?

no, a currant is just a dried up shrivelled old grape, we call them sagurus in my house.

I think a prune is a dried up shrivelled old plum, and I'm not sure what a dried up shrivelled old politician is called

[wurzel]

no, a currant is just a dried up shrivelled old grape, we call them sagurus in my house.

I think a prune is a dried up shrivelled old plum, and I'm not sure what a dried up shrivelled old politician is called

Blackcurrants? Redcurrants? Let's not go there.