Why are dried grapes raisins but dried apples are dried apples? I thought it might have something to do with the physical precess involved, but it still doesn’t seem to justify a new name for the things. Any ideas?
It might have something to do with the french word for grape, which is “la raisin”. Incidentally, the word for raisin is “la raisin sec”. Perhaps the “sec” was lost along the way. Just a WAG, though.
English etomology is a funny thing. What the language co-opts from others is often random and, in some cases, not correct in the original language.
And dried cranberries used to be called craisins, until the raisin lobby got mad and said that since it was a dried cranberry, that’s what they should call it. Apparently they said this in all seriousness. I think someone in the raisin industry should be slapped repeatedly about the head and neck with a fish.
I think it may also have something to do with the relative age of the products as well. Prunes (dried plums) and raisins (dried grapes) are older, more widely distributed commodities. Dried apples are newer.
Not that no one ever dried apples way back when, but they were usually stored as whole fruit, retaining most of their water, while plums and grapes were routinely dried whole for storage. Apples, at least in my experience, are sliced before they’re dried. This doesn’t seem like much of a technological advance but keeping sliced fruit from spoiling while it dries is harder than drying whole fruit.
So it may just be that the older products have been around long enough to get their very own nouns, while people in the 23rd century will wonder why we used to call drapples “dried apples”.
“Drapples”? Ewww. I vote for “pomsick”–in the 23rd century, people will be cybersurfing their way to the Virtual Reality Straight Dope Branch Office on Mars and asking CyberCecil, “Why are dried apples called pomsicks?” and he will be telling them, "It’s from the French pomme sec," and he’ll tell them how there was a brief movement in the early 21st century to call them “drapples” but “pomsick” is the name that stuck. And aren’t we thankful, because who would want to eat something called a “drapple”? 
Note also that a prune isnt just a dried plum. A prune is also a variety of plum (european) that will dry without spoiling. They have a higher sugar content which keeps them from fermenting at the pit. So, the word refers to both the fresh fruit and the fruit when dried.
Thanks for the update on prunes. I don’t eat the things so I don’t know a prune from a dried plum.
FWIW, Mrs. Pluto just purchased a bag of Craisins, so either the brand name is still in use or she bought some really old dried cranberries.
But I’m still wondering: if they can make prune juice, why is there no raisin juice?
I think cuz it would make everybody gag.
stoid
For that matter, how come light blue is blue, but light red is pink?
Here is an odd item that goes with this discussion:
http://www.funshop.com/othhelprunju.html
Pleas notice, this item is sold out! Too bad, it would have been a great gift for my brother. A friend got him Geritol last year and he’s still mad about it.