# What's the difference between fruits and vegetables? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 12, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951 "2012-06-12T20:13:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/21 "2012-06-16T06:49:17Z")
> [@eastcheap](#): > > Vegetable dyes. Vegetable fibers. Vegetable tanning. Those are just the three that immediately popped into my head. The word vegetable is an adjective in all of those instances, and we’re talking about the noun. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2012, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/22 "2012-06-16T10:00:14Z")
[QUOTE=Darth Panda] Do you have evidence that it is currently commonly in use as anything other than a culinary or dietary term? [/QUOTE] When people refer to a hospital patient as a “vegetable,” they’re not remarking on his suitability for being incorporated in a stew. EDIT: > [@](#): > > The word vegetable is an adjective in all of those instances, and we’re talking about the noun. Those phrases are compound nouns. In each, the word “vegetable” is a functional part of the noun. It’s not like “big” or “amazing” or “tall.” ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/23 "2012-06-16T10:59:36Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > When people refer to a hospital patient as a “vegetable,” they’re not remarking on his suitability for being incorporated in a stew. Quite true. But hopefully people aren’t thinking that this definition of vegetable would be an option when deciding whether something like a tomato is a vegetable. > [@Tarwater](#): > > Those phrases are compound nouns. In each, the word “vegetable” is a functional part of the noun. It’s not like “big” or “amazing” or “tall.” Not according to the [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com): > [@](#): > > adjective > 6. > of, consisting of, or made from edible vegetables: a vegetable diet. > 7. > of, pertaining to, or characteristic of plants: the vegetable kingdom. > 8. > derived from plants: vegetable fiber; vegetable oils. > 9. > consisting of, comprising, or containing the substance or remains of plants: vegetable matter; a vegetable organism. > 10. > of the nature of or resembling a plant: the vegetable forms of art Nouveau ornament. You can see that they included vegetable fiber in there as an example of when vegetable is an adjective. But I don’t want to belabor the point. I guess all I was trying to say is that when the this comment was made: > [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > “Vegetable” is _not_ an exclusively culinary (or dietary) term. It has been used in English to refer to non-animal life generally since the middle ages, and that is, in fact, the original meaning. was that vegetable was no longer commonly understood to have that meaning. I think this cite kind of shows that: > [@](#): > > 1. _rare_ any member of the plant kingdom > **[Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/vegetable)** > > The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years! Hopefully, we can at least agree that rare does not mean common. Looking back, what I should have said was that I don’t think anyone could find evidence of the word vegetable currently being commonly used to mean “non-animal life generally.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/24 "2012-06-16T17:51:13Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > Not according to the [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com): Nothing is “according to…dictionary.com”; [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) is an aggregator. What you’re actually citing is [collinsdictionary.com](http://collinsdictionary.com). I’ll stick with the OED. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/25 "2012-06-17T09:09:37Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Nothing is “according to…dictionary.com”; [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) is an aggregator. What you’re actually citing is [collinsdictionary.com](http://collinsdictionary.com). I’ll stick with the OED. OED also lists vegetable as an adjective (in addition to being a noun of course). I included the cite I did because it happened to have a good example and was easy to link to. I must have missed the part where you provided a cite indicating that most people think that trees are vegetables. Unless your post is your cite. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/26 "2012-06-17T16:26:33Z")
Sorry, but [http://mostpeople.com](http://mostpeople.com) is a dummy website. ---
**Author:** ![ukdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f19dbf/32.png) [@ukdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ukdave)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/27 "2012-06-18T09:57:37Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Sorry, but [http://mostpeople.com](http://mostpeople.com) is a dummy website. That’s OK; we’re all dummies here… ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951/28 "2012-06-22T18:13:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What I can’t understand is why everyone always fixates on fruits for this question. People will say that “a tomato isn’t really a vegetable; it’s really a fruit”. But nobody ever says “a carrot isn’t really a vegetable, it’s really a root”, or “spinach isn’t really a vegetable; it’s really a leaf”. **All vegetables are parts of plants, and many different kinds of plant parts can be vegetables. Some vegetables are fruits, some are roots, some are leaves, and some are various other parts of plants.** People fixate on the “fruits” because of the construction “fruits and vegetables,” which suggests equivalent categories. The idea that something is “really” a fruit even if we call it “vegetable” (the botanical false-correction of the culinary usage) can fit into this conception. But if a vegetable _isn’t_ a fruit, no further analysis is called for, under the common formula; there’s no other place to put it. The bolded part is certainly logical, but I think the only way to push that logic into the present language would be to start talking about “fruit vegetables” as the equivalent category to “root vegetables,” “leafy vegetables,” and so on. Or, of course, to drop the “vegetable” part and just speak of eating fruits, roots, leaves, etc. I’ll support you in whichever approach you take. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables/624951.md?page=1)