Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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It's been 30 years and I still can't get over the fact that the French word for "potatoes" is "ground apples." Have The French never had an apple? (midwest.social)

submitted 2 weeks ago by sxan@midwest.social to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

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[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 60 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

“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.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/apple

[–] Kushan@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 2 weeks ago

That's a bingo.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It also explain why we here in the Nordics call oranges "appelsin", as in a "Chinese apple".

[–] appelkooskonfyt@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

Same in Dutch: sinaasappel

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Great! Can't have myths about random fruit in this otherwise totally valid, reasonable and trustworthy story about a woman that was made from a man's rib and talked to reptiles.

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

If a narrative is not literally true, does that mean it has no truth value?

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What is "truth value" supposed to mean?

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sorry, I wasn't explaining myself well.

Just because a story isn't factually true, doesn't mean that it has no value, or negative value. There are other types of values which can supersede factual value:

aesthetic
symbolic
ethical
didactic

Truth isn't always about facts. Sometimes factual statements can be used as a weapon of deceit.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

There are other types of value, of course. It's just funny to specifically call the apple out for being a myth. The entire story is a myth, so they could have made it a pomelo for all I care.

[–] moistclump@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But… we’re talking French and Adam and Eve was written in Hebrew. Is it the same for Hebrew?

[–] Uruanna@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Hebrew used a generic word for fruit, all languages translated that word as their version of apple which was generic at the time, and then much later, all languages changed the meaning of their word for apple, it's not specific to French. The use of apple for one specific fruit is fairly recent - more recent than the King James Bible, even.

I don't know what the word in Hebrew is and if it also changed its meaning since then, though.

[–] nabladabla@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

Literally yes, ground apple is potato in hebrew