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[-] Ashiette@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

In french, that's really the name that is given to them, colloquially : doigts de pied (foot fingers)

The real term is orteils (toes)

[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

They're really good at it, too. Sometimes it's even charming. For example, potatoes are "earth apples."

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's the same in Dutch - "aardapple" - but using the Dutch words for earth and apple rather than the French ones.

And don't get me started on French numbering - for example 98 is "four twenties eigtheen".

One doesn't get it for one's own language because all the weird stuff is "normal" but when you're learning other languages you discovered they're all riddled with funny constructs like this (and then there are expressions, which are often hilarious - for example on of the Dutch expression for wasting time on small details literally translates to "fucking ants")

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago

I wonder if the meaning of pomme was broader in Old French, like how meat (from mete) used to mean food in Old English.

[-] Ashiette@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Yes it was the case, broadly pomme meant fruit.

Originally tomatoes were called pommes d'amour. There is pommes de terre (potatoes) pommes de pin (pinecones). If we would translate literally pomme de pin it would give us pineapple.

There were also other fruits beginning with pomme originally but I can't seem to recall them.

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I vaguely heard that ‘berry’ and iirc ‘apple’ were used the same way in English, one for small fruits and the other for larger ones.

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Pomme comes from latin pomum which could be used for any fruit, apple specifically was malum.

[-] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

In Québec, we don't say that and I didn't even know French people say that.

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
1267 points (98.7% liked)

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