Wiktionary

fruit

See also: Fruit

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English frute, fruit, fruct, fruyt, frut (“fruits and vegetables”), from Old French fruit (“produce, fruits and vegetables”), from Latin fructus (“enjoyment, proceeds, profits, produce, income”) and frūx (“crop, produce, fruit”) (compare Latin fruor (“have the benefit of, to use, to enjoy”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰruHg- (“to make use of, to have enjoyment of”). Cognate with English brook (“to bear, tolerate”) and German brauchen (“to need”). Displaced native Middle English ovet ("fruit", from Old English ofett; see English ovest, German Obst), Middle English wastom, wastum ("fruit, growth", from Old English wæstm), and Middle English blede ("fruit, flower, offspring", from Old English blēd; see English blead).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

fruit (countable and uncountable, plural fruits) (see Usage notes for discussion of plural)

  1. (often in the plural) In general, a product of plant growth useful to man or animals.
  2. Specifically, a sweet, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit (see next sense), even if it does not develop from a floral ovary; also used in a technically imprecise sense for some sweet or sweetish vegetables, such as the petioles of rhubarb, that resemble a true fruit or are used in cookery as if they were a fruit.
  3. (botany) A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically:
    1. The seed-bearing part of a plant, often edible, colourful and fragrant, produced from a floral ovary after fertilization.
    2. The spores of cryptogams and their accessory organs.
    • 1640, John Parkinson, Theatrum botanicum: the Theater of Plants; or, An Herball of a Large Extent, London, page 1063:
      [A]fter the flower is past commeth the fruit in long pods, every seede bunching out like the pods of Orobus and as bigge almost as the smaller Pease.
  4. An end result, effect, or consequence; advantageous or disadvantageous result.
    His long nights in the office eventually bore fruit when his business boomed and he was given a raise.
  5. (attributive) Of, belonging to, related to, or having fruit or its characteristics; (of living things) producing or consuming fruit.
    fresh-squeezed fruit juice
    a fruit salad
    an artificial fruit flavor
    a fruit tree
  6. (dated, colloquial, derogatory) A homosexual man; (derogatory, figuratively) an effeminate man. [from 1900]
    • 1953, William S. Burroughs, Junky, Penguin Books, published 1977, →ISBN, page 66:
      "Moishe just checked in," he said. "He's a panhandler and a fruit. A disgrace to the Jewish race."
    • 1984, This is Spinal Tap, spoken by Ian Faith (Tony Hendra):
      I'm not talking to this twisted fruit anymore!
    • 1997, Daniel Clowes, “Garage Sale”, in Ghost World, Jonathan Cape, published 2000, →ISBN, page 15:
      Aww, but he's so cute! / He's a fruit… Oh my fucking god! You will not believe who was here today!
  7. (archaic) Offspring from a sexual union.
    The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.

Usage notesEdit

  • In the botanical and figurative senses, fruit is usually treated as uncountable:
    a bowl of fruit; eat plenty of fruit; the tree provides fruit.
  • fruits is also sometimes used as the plural in the botanical sense:
    berries, achenes, and nuts are all fruits; the fruits of this plant split into two parts.
  • When fruit is treated as uncountable in the botanical sense, a piece of fruit is often used as a singulative.
  • In senses other than the botanical or figurative ones derived from the botanical sense, the plural is fruits.
  • The culinary sense often does not cover true fruits that are savoury or used chiefly in savoury foods, such as tomatoes and peas. These are normally described simply as vegetables.

Derived termsEdit

Derived from fruit (literal, vegetal)
Derived from fruit (figurative)

Related termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

  • Bislama: frut
  • Jamaican Creole: fruut
  • → Japanese: フルーツ (furūtsu)

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

VerbEdit

fruit (third-person singular simple present fruits, present participle fruiting, simple past and past participle fruited)

  1. To produce fruit, seeds, or spores.
    • 1910, Canada Experimental Farms Service, Report of the Dominion Experimental Farms:
      It may be said, however, that the percentage of green apples among the Fameuse seedlings is much less than among the others as out of 33 Fameuse seedlings which had fruited up to this year, none was green and we recollect but one light coloured Fameuse seedling fruiting this year.
    • 1998, Randy Molina & David Pilz, Managing Forest Ecosystems to Conserve Fungus Diversity and Sustain Wild Mushroom Harvests, →ISBN, page 10:
      For example, chanterelles and russulas can start fruiting in early to mid summer given sufficient moisture, but other species, such as matsutake, rarely fruit until temperatures cool in the autumn, even if moisture is available earlier.
    • 2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, →ISBN, page 12:
      The grass and weeds come up to my waist and the plum trees are already fruiting up, though most of the fruit'll go to the wasps and the worms, Vinny says, 'cause he can't be arsed to pick it.

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

Further readingEdit

CatalanEdit

 
Catalan Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ca

EtymologyEdit

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin fructus.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

fruit m (plural fruits)

  1. A fruit.

DutchEdit

 
Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle Dutch fruut, froyt, from Old French fruit, from Latin frūctus. Doublet of vrucht.

NounEdit

fruit n (uncountable)

  1. (usually collective) fruit (produced by trees or bushes, or any sweet vegetable; only literal sense)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit

- fruit types

Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: frutu

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle Dutch fruten, older friten (“to fry”), from Old French frit, past participle of frire (“to fry”).

VerbEdit

fruit

  1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of fruiten
  2. imperative of fruiten

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle French fruict, a latinized spelling of Old French fruit, from Latin frūctus (“enjoyment, proceeds, profits, produce, income”), a derivative of fruor (“have the benefit of, to use, to enjoy”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰruHg- (“to make use of, to have enjoyment of”).

 
French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

fruit m (plural fruits)

  1. fruit

Derived termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

  • Haitian Creole: fwi

Further readingEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

NounEdit

fruit (uncountable)

  1. Alternative form of frute

Old FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin fructus.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

fruit m (oblique plural fruiz or fruitz, nominative singular fruiz or fruitz, nominative plural fruit)

  1. fruit

DescendantsEdit

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