Why don’t we refer to prunes as dried plums? Prune and plum come from the same distant etymological roots and traveled into English via French and German respectively. The French still use prune for “plum.” Other foods that undergo...
If you’re in a peek and plumb town, it’s a small one. You’ll have time for just a peek at it before you’ve plumb passed it by. A variant of plumb is plum, meaningly completely or utterly. This is part of a complete episode...
The term dried plum has come into vogue since prune seems to have some negative connotations. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Dried Plum” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Margaret. Hi, Margaret. Where are...
Nancy in Danville, California, wonders why a dried grape becomes a raisin and a dried plum becomes a prune. English borrowed raisin and prune from French, where raisin means grape and prune means plum, through different routes and at different times...
An Atlanta native wants to know why she and her fellow Southerners grew up using the word plum, as in “plum tuckered out.” Martha explains the connection between that kind of “plum” and “plumbers.” This is part of...
rom-com n.— «The Holiday, written and directed by gal-movie goddess Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give) offers a classic rom-com contrivance as Yankee overachiever Cameron Diaz and Brit plum pudding Kate Winslet swap houses and find...