Transcript of “What Are the Words Meaning “A Segment of Citrus Fruit”?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Grant. It’s Jennifer from Tallahassee.
Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the show.
Hello, Jennifer.
Hi, Martha.
Hi, what’s up?
Well, I have another question for you. I called once before.
I’m a tutor, and I work with elementary age and up to high school age children and students.
And I often use fun words with them, and I love words, and they know it.
And the other day, it’s citrus season here down south, and I had a satsuma orange, and I gave the children a piece.
I gave the student a piece, and I said, have a plug.
And then I told them, I said, that’s what someone told me a section of an orange is called, and I was all proud of this.
And then later I went home and thought, is that true?
Did I make that up, or did I get that?
And so I did a little search on the etymology search about it, and I didn’t find anything about a plug.
I found something about a peg, but I am almost certain a long time ago, someone with a scientific background told me that indeed it was called a plug.
So I wanted to check with you all so I don’t mislead my students.
So these are segments of a satsuma orange, and you just popped up the word plug.
I did, but I thought that someone had taught me this a long time ago.
I’m not aware of plug being a term for a section of an orange.
There are other scientific words like carpal, C-A-R-P-E-L, which comes from an old word that means fruit.
And then there’s segment and slice and wedge.
And you mentioned, did you mention pig or peg?
Peg.
When I looked it up online, and I don’t remember which, you know, online dictionary I referenced.
But I thought I said something about a peg, but I was kind of hurried and fast, and so I misled my students.
Well, this is a teachable moment, you know.
This is something you can go back to them and talk with them about a little bit more.
Because the word peg is used for that kind of thing, and also pig.
Pig is a word that is used, yes.
Pig like oink oink pig.
Yes.
Probably because it’s related to the word peg.
We’re not sure.
But yeah, I’m looking at a reference from an 1859 article that talks about the pigs of a dry orange.
Interesting.
So I wonder if like peg and pig, if it just got, it took a little L blend in the beginning and changed the vowel.
And somehow somebody gave it to me as plug.
Yeah, it’s possible they got it wrong, that your memory is solid, and they misremembered or misspoke.
And it doesn’t have to be oranges.
Here’s another reference from the 1950s.
I squeezed my pig of lemon over the sliver of salmon.
Well, not only that, it can be used for apple segments in the UK, particularly Scotland.
But I want to go back to pig.
One of the theories that I’ve read about why they might be called pigs is all the segments lined up in a row look like piglets nursing all in a row.
Oh, that’s so right.
Because it kind of radiates back to the little center.
Yeah, exactly.
They’re all focused on the mama.
Little piggies.
And another thing about pigs here is these are also historically referred to as gussies, G-U-S-S-I-E, in Scotland, which also means pig.
So it’s used for pigs and for citrus segments.
And there’s another term from Scotland, going back at least to the 1700s, where they’re called liths, L-I-T-H, which is also used for the rings around the base of a cow’s horn.
And I have a French term for this too, if you want it.
I’m ready.
So if you look in La Rousse gastronomique, which is one of the classic French cookbooks, you will find them talking about supreme, S-U-P-R-E-M-E, with the carrot, the little hat on top of the E.
And this not only refers to the segment of a citrus fruit, but also it’s a verb for what you do when you segment it out.
And so it probably comes from the many French dishes that have supreme in the name, but they involve deboning or separating meat at the joints, such as supreme de pigeon au choux et foie gras, which is supreme to pigeon with cabbage and foie gras.
But the pigeon is deboned.
The pigeon is separated out.
You know, the pigeon is, you know, all the bones are pulled away.
So you have all the different pigeon pieces.
Well, but sure.
That kind of makes sense because, you know, when you eat citrus, you know, it kind of is a bit of a pulling out and getting those long lines.
There would be another one.
What are those things called?
You know, those stringy.
I don’t know, but they’re good.
I like them.
I know there’s a term for banana strings.
I think it’s phloem bundles.
If you want to talk about bananas.
P-H-L-O-E-M.
Phloem bundles.
So like Martha said, Jennifer, when you go back to your students, you have a teachable moment and more to tell them.
Much more. Thank you so much. So I will make this a very happy mistake.
I’ll say, look, look at this wonderful mistake. We’ve got pigs and gussies and lifts.
And we could even segue into banana strings, you know, I mean, lots of possibility here.
So much. Well, Jennifer, you sound like I just want to say thanks for being an educator.
Sarah, you are our people, and thanks for calling us.
Thanks so much.
Thanks, Jennifer. Bye-bye.
