The name of everything we come in contact with has an origin, and sometimes it’s quite surprising to discover how certain names began. Take a name like gooseberry, for example. It has nothing to do with geese! It was originally gorseberry. In Saxon, gorst from which “gorse” is derived, meant “rough.” And this berry has this name because it grows on a rough or thorny shrub! Raspberry comes from the German verb raspen, which means to rub together or rub as with a file. The marks on this berry were thought to resemble a file.

Strawberry is really a corruption of “strayberry,” which was so named because of the way runners from this plant stray in all directions! Cranberry was once called “craneberry,” because the slender stalks resemble the long legs and neck of the crane. Currants were so called because they first came from Corinth. Cherries got their name from the city of Cerasus.

The term grape is our English equivalent of the Italian grappo, and the Dutch and French grappe, all of which mean a “bunch.”

Raisin is a French word which comes from the Latin racenus, a dried grape.

The greengage plum gets its name from Lord Gage, who introduced it into England, and from its greenish color when ripe. Apricot comes from the Latin “praecoquus,” which means early ripe. Melon is Greek for apple.

Tomato is the West Indian name for love-apple. The pineapple gets its name naturally from its resemblance to the pine cone. A strange name like pomegranate comes from the Latin pomum, a fruit, and granatus meaning many seeds.

Chestnuts are so named because they originally came from a city called Castana. Walnut came from the Saxon word wahl-nut, meaning foreign nut, since it originally came from Persia. Spinach was Nispanach, the Arabic word for a Spanish plant!