Fresh Fruit Puzzler

You are listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And ambling across the horizon with the sun in his eyes is our quiz guide, John Chanesky.

Hi, John.

Hi.

Is that Grant?

Is that Martha?

I can’t see.

With the sun in my eyes, I can’t quite tell.

You know, guys, I’m feeling a little peckish today, but I’m also trying to stay healthy.

So I thought we’d do a little quiz about fruit and language, of course, fruit and words.

Many fruits are just fun to say as words.

Papaya, elderberry, and of course, loquat.

But let’s see what happens when fruits slip over into parts of language that are not about food.

Okay?

For example, one fruit is such a staple that one uses it to describe a person that is cherished, as in the blank of one’s eye.

You know what that is, right?

Sure, the apple of one’s eye.

Apple.

Apple.

It’s such a fruit staple.

These next two are related in some way.

This small fruit can be an adjective meaning new or in like new condition, like a car, say.

Cherry.

Cherry, baby. Yeah, it’s a cherry car.

Similarly, this stone fruit can be a noun meaning a particularly fine or delightful thing.

Peach.

Peach, as anyone in Georgia could tell you. Yeah, it’s a peach.

Now, though it makes some people squirm, I sometimes eat this particular fruit just like an orange.

I love them. So I wonder why it’s also a word for something bad or undesirable, like a car that breaks down too often.

Wait, you eat lemons like they’re oranges?

I eat lemons like they’re going out of style.

You really do?

Sure do, yeah.

Wow.

They’re just tasty. Now, this verb is unrelated etymologically to the oblong droop with a single hard stone or seed.

But if you’re doing this with someone who likes North African and Asian food crops, maybe bring a box of dried ones along on the movies to the movies.

A date.

A date, yes. It’s a date. It means lots of different things, but it’s also a fruit.

Now, when I was a kid, I thought it was the height of cleverness that this fruit gave its name to a jar filled with scraps of paper, each one containing an errand or job that typically the man of the house was asked to attend to.

Right, the honeydew.

The honeydew. It’s a honeydew jar. Honeydew this, honeydew that. Yeah.

You know how they say intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit and wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad?

Well, conversely, this leaf stalk isn’t technically a fruit, but it’s treated like one, so we can include it here.

Its name is a slang term for a heated dispute or row.

A rhubarb.

A rhubarb, yes. It could also be the murmurs of the crowd while watching such a thing.

I was, of course, a theater major, so we learned to say,

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.

Now, you’ve done quite well on this fruit salad quiz.

You’ve really used your noggin, or you could say a particular fruit that means head, or one that might fall on your head.

In the tropics.

A coconut?

The coconut, yes.

You’ve used your coconuts well today, my friends.

Oh, that old chestnut.

I’m going to save that one for the nut quiz.

That’s coming up.

Well, John, that was a grape quiz.

Oh, nice.

If you’d like to be put out of your misery and not hear any more of these fruit puns, give us a call, 877-929-9673.

And John, we’ll be back with more quiz next week.

Take care.