fruit

See also: Fruit and FRUIT

English

Etymology

From Middle English fruyt, frut (“fruits and vegetables”), from Old French fruit (“produce, fruits and vegetables”), from Latin frūctus (“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 Old English wæstm.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fro͞ot, IPA(key): /fɹuːt/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /fɹut/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio(file)
  • Homophone: froot
  • Rhymes: -uːt

Noun

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

  1. (botany) A product of fertilization in a plant, specifically:
    • 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.
    1. The seed-bearing part of a plant; often edible, colourful, fragrant, and sweet or sour; produced from a floral ovary after fertilization.
    2. The spores of cryptogams and their accessory organs.
  2. Any sweet or sour, edible part of a plant that resembles seed-bearing fruit (see former sense) even if it does not develop from a floral ovary.
    1. A sweet or sweetish vegetable, such as the petioles of rhubarb, that resembles a true fruit or is used in cookery as if it was a fruit.
  3. 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.
  4. (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
  5. (dated, colloquial, derogatory) A homosexual man; (derogatory, figurative) an effeminate man. [from 1900]
    • 1977 [1953], William S. Burroughs, edited by Allen Ginsberg, Junky, Penguin Books, →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!
  6. (archaic) Offspring from a sexual union.
    The litter was the fruit of the union between our whippet and their terrier.
  7. (informal) A crazy person.

Usage notes
  • 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.

Hyponyms

Derived terms
Derived from fruit (literal, vegetal)
Derived from fruit (figurative)
other derived terms (unsorted)

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

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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.

Translations

See also
  • Category:Fruits for a list of fruits
  • fruiting (in aviation)

Further reading

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin fructus.

Pronunciation

Noun

fruit m (plural fruits)

  1. fruit
  2. offspring
    el fruit de les seves entranyes ― the fruit of his loins
  3. result, consequence
    Synonyms: efecte, conseqüència
  4. profit, benefit
    Synonyms: benefici, profit, utilitat

Derived terms

References

Dutch

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /frœy̯t/
  • audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: fruit
  • Rhymes: -œy̯t

Etymology 1

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

Noun

fruit n (uncountable)

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

- fruit types

Descendants
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: frutu

Etymology 2

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

Verb

fruit

  1. inflection of fruiten:
    1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

French

Etymology

Inherited 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”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fʁɥi/
  • Audio "un fruit" (Western France)(file)
  • Homophone: fruits

Noun

fruit m (plural fruits)

  1. fruit

Derived terms

Descendants
  • Haitian Creole: fwi

Further reading

Middle English

Noun

fruit

  1. Alternative form of fruyt

Old French

Etymology

From Latin fructus.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈfɾyi̯t/

Noun

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

  1. fruit

Descendants

West Frisian

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /frɔ̈ˌi̯t/

Noun

fruit n (no plural)

  1. fruit

References
  • J. W. Zantema, Frysk wurdboek. Deel 1: Frysk - Nederlânsk, 11e printige, page 315
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