Quote:
Originally Posted by mbyron
Apologies for hijacking. A fruit is a botanical, not merely a customs, category. Vegetable is not.
Not sure where you got your info, Rita.
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You misunderstood what I wrote because I was incomplete.
There was a time that tomatoes were considered fruit, in line with apples, pears etc. One story has it that this was to escape import duties that were higher on vegetables.
So, the story goes, many people still get all caught up in tomatoes being fruit: E.g. Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
As a science teacher I find that to be annoying. Sure the tomato is the fruit of the plant. But so are squash, cucumbers, snap peas and green beans. We wouldn't even begin to call them "fruit" even though they are "fruits". "Fruit" and "vegetable" are dinner classifications, not science classifications.
That's just part of why his sentence "All vegetables, other than tomatoes, come from the leaf, stem, or root of the plant." doesn't work as an analogy.
Rita