18 votes

Why forty-two languages have the same word for "pineapple"

3 comments

  1. [3]
    Fal
    Link
    Close enough, welcome back bill wurtz

    Close enough, welcome back bill wurtz

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      fefellama
      Link Parent
      You had me at Bill Wurtz. Interesting history, though in Brazilian Portuguese we still call it abacaxi. Not sure if it's a regional thing but no one in my family calls it anything other than...

      You had me at Bill Wurtz.

      Interesting history, though in Brazilian Portuguese we still call it abacaxi. Not sure if it's a regional thing but no one in my family calls it anything other than abacaxi. I had no idea both ananas and abacaxi came from indigenous groups in Brazil (Tupi and Guarani). Do Portuguese people say ananas?

      Also, abacaxi happens to be one of my wife's favorite words. It was one of the first Portuguese words she learned and she thought it was absolutely hilarious to say. I wonder why it didn't take off like ananas did.

      4 votes
      1. Fal
        Link Parent
        A brief check of Wiktionary and Google Translate seems to confirm that Portuguese people say ananas, while Brazilians say abacaxi (though I did see some mention of ananas being more used in Brazil...

        A brief check of Wiktionary and Google Translate seems to confirm that Portuguese people say ananas, while Brazilians say abacaxi (though I did see some mention of ananas being more used in Brazil a long time ago)

        4 votes