How did Fruits Get Their Names?

The name of many fruits are derived from from foreign languages, both ancient and modern. Sometimes it is quite surprising to learn how certain names began. Take a word like gooseberry, for example. It has nothing to do with geese. It was originally gorseberry. In Saxon, gorst meant rough, and this berry got its 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 acorruption of 'strayberry', and was so named because of the way runners from this palnt stray in all directions. The cranberry was once called the 'craneberry' because the slender stalks resemble the long legs and neck of the crane. The term grape is the English equivalent of the Italian grappo, all of which mean a 'bunch'. Melon is the Greek word for apple, while tomato is the West Indian name for Love-apple.