A look at terms and expressions associated with fruits.

THERE it was, “Fruitful talks”, the headline (New Straits Times, March 4, 2011) referring to the high-level discussion on a broad range of issues between the prime ministers of Malaysia and Australia. It looks like a cue for me to broach – though at a much, much lower level – the topic of fruits. By the way, the above title is Italian for “all fruits”, in reference to a type of confectionery which, however, is not included in this discussion.

Terms for fruits

Botany has a whole lexicon relating to the morphology and types of fruit. There are true fruits and false fruits. There are simple fruits, aggregate fruits, and multiple (or composite) fruits. Fruits are succulent or dry – and, if dry, dehiscent or indehiscent. There are special terms to describe the different types of fruit, e.g. berry (e.g. banana, guava, tomato), caryopsis (the fruit of cereals such as rice and wheat), drupe (e.g. mango, peach), nut (e.g. the cashew nut), legume (a fruit consisting of a dehiscent pod containing, typically, a single row of seeds, called beans, e.g. long beans, petai), sorosis (a multiple fruit such as the jackfruit and the pineapple), synconium (e.g. fig), etc.

Going bananas: Children trying to make friends with an ape.

However, it should be noted that, in popular usage and in the trade, some fruits are given terms which do not have the exactness of those same terms used in botany. Take, for example, coffee. The fruit from which the beverage is made is called a coffee cherry or coffee berry (botanically, it is an unusual two-seeded drupe) and the seeds are called coffee beans (although beans in botany are the seeds of a legume). The groundnut (peanut in American English) is not a nut: it is the bean of a legume. The cacao (cocoa refers to the processed item) fruit is not a pod that a legume is, and cocoa beans are not beans in the sense of seeds from a legume. The oil palm fruit is an unusual fruit. Botanical­ly speaking, it is a drupe which is not succulent in the usual sense – it has an oil-bearing endocarp; and its seed is called the oil palm nut (which, botanically, is a seed, whereas a nut is a type of fruit, not the seed within the fruit).

‘Fruity’ terms and expressions

The English language is enriched by many terms and expressions featuring fruits or parts thereof. Their figurative meanings can be guessed or can be easily obtained from the dictionary. Some of the fruits involved are: (1) apple – the apple of one’s eye; to upset the apple-cart; polishing apples; apple-polisher; a rotten apple; (2) banana – go bananas, banana republic, banana skin; (3) bean – to spill the beans; (4) fig – not worth a fig; to not care a fig for somebody or something; (5) grape – on/through the grapevine; addicted to the grape; sour grapes; (6) nut – tough nut to crack; (7) orange – comparing apples and oranges; (8) pea – like peas in a pod; (9) peach – (see below).

A peach, figuratively speaking, is a particularly pleasing or attractive person or thing, and peachy (informal, chiefly North American) means “very fine, good and pleasant, excellent (everything is just peachy). On one occasion in Australia, I reckoned that the US peachy (as in she’s peachy) was the same as the Australian apples (as in she’s apples) – but I was wrong. I had used the term in a certain situation thus: It’s apples, but I was then corrected. The expression should have been: She’s apples. Apparently, the expression she’s apples – note the personal pronoun, of the feminine gender – is applicable, unchanged, to anything, animate or otherwise!

Parallels in Malay?

The Malay language has given names to certain fruits that suggest a foreign origin – and, for some strange reason, that “foreignness” is linked to the name Belanda (Malay for “Dutch”); e.g. beras Belanda (“Dutch rice”, for barley, which originates in temperate Europe), durian Belanda (“Dutch durian”, for the soursop, whose origin is tropical America), and terung Belanda (“Dutch brinjal”, for the tomato, which originates from South Ameri­ca). Incidental­ly, Malay also uses the modifier Belanda in association with animals, e.g. ayam Belan­da (turkey) and kucing Belanda (rabbit).

(At this juncture, permit me to ramble a bit. I wonder what it is with the Dutch to “lend” the name to be used in several situations, sometimes in a derogatory way. In English, there are: Dutch auction (an auction in which an item for sale is offered at an initially high price which is then reduced stepwise until someone bids to buy the item); Dutch courage (the courage or confidence one gets from drinking alcohol); and Dutch wife (a longish pillow for the legs to wrap around). To go Dutch is to share the cost of, say, a meal or entertainment; and to speak like a Dutch uncle is to advise or rebuke with brutal frankness. Hopefully this short digression will not be mistaken for double Dutch!)

Now let us see how English expressions would translate into Malay. She is the apple of her father’s eye would become the implausible she is the durian of her father’s eye. (Aiyoyo, like that very painful one!) But Malay has its own locutions just as expressive as English ones. Consider (1) durian runtuh (“fallen durians”), equivalent to the English windfall; (2) pagar makan padi (“the fence eating the padi crop”), said of a guardian who abuses his responsibility and takes advantage of his ward; (3) tak kan pisang berbuah dua kali (“a banana trunk does not bear fruit twice”), meaning that it is unnecessary or unbecoming to do a certain thing twice; and (4) macam kacang lupakan kulit (“like the bean that forgets its shell”), applicable to the nouveau riche and suchlike who forget their humble beginnings.

Signing off

Begging your pardon, I must sign off now. Yours fruitfully(?), the Rambling Columnist.

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