A love apple is just the ordinary common tomato, but many people were averse to eating it.
In rural Ohio, it was known only as love apple and, believed to possess aphrodisiac properties, was therefore feared by virtuous maidens.
The reason for the name, with the properties suggested by it, was entirely due to a mistake in translation.
From South America, where the plant was discovered, it was introduced into Spain in the sixteenth century and from there into Morocco.
Italian traders then brought it to Italy, where it was called porno dei Moro, “apple of the Moors.”
From Italy it went to France, and there is where the mistake was made. Whoever the grower, his knowledge of Italian was faulty.
Guided by the sound, he obviously thought porno dei Moro meant, in French, pomme d’amour, “apple of love.”
And it was by the latter name or its English translation that the tomato was introduced into England in the early seventeenth century and thence to North America.
And in Germany the common name is still Liebesapfel, “love apple,” although Tomate is gaining ascendency.
Needless to add, perhaps, any notion that the tomato arouses sexual desire or is even faintly poisonous has now completely died out.
Related Posts
-
How did the Tomato get its name and Where does the word Tomato come from?
The explorers who invaded Mexico in the sixteenth century found, in addition to treasure of silver and gold, a vegetable treasure in the form of a new fruit, unknown in Europe, which the…
-
What is the Difference between Apple Juice and Apple Cider and Is Apple Juice Pasteurized?
In this country, apple juice and apple cider are often used interchangeably, referring simply to the liquid that runs out of pressed apples. But in most other countries, cider means apple juice that…
-
How did the Adam’s Apple get its name and Where does the term Adam’s Apple come from?
"In Adam's fall We sinned all," ran the first stanza of the seventeenth-century New England Primer. His "fall" has since been marked on all mortals, by superstitious belief, by a projection on the…
-
How Did New York City Get Its Nickname “the Big Apple” and What Does the Big Apple Mean?
The latest theory on how New York was called the Big Apple is that horse-racing trainers and jockeys in the 1920s used the term to refer to New York City. Back then New…
-
What Does “Platonic Love” Mean and Where Did the Term For Unconsummated Love Come From?
The Greek philosopher Plato observed his teacher Socrates' great but non-sexual love for young men, and concluded that the purest form of love exists only within the mind. Ideal love's perfection is spiritual,…
-
Where did the Term Adam’s Apple Come From and Why is the Lump in a Man’s Throat Called an Adam’s Apple?
The Adam's Apple, also known as the laryngeal prominence, is a feature of the human neck. Both men and women have the thyroid cartilage, but it is usually more prominent in adult men.…
