My Chambers Dic. of Ety, which is the best on English words IMHO, says under lime:
In Spanish the issue is more muddly. A “limón” is indeed the same thing we call a lemon or a lime, and one is yellow or not. But! Cans of 7-Up and Sprite always indicate “lima-limón” soda. Okay, so lima must be lemon, right? But it’s not. At least it’s not what we call a lemon. a Lima is something that looks identical to a lemon, is a little larger, and is sweet.
Yeah, Doobieous when I was at work today I looked up lemon and lime in Encarta and read about the theory that lemons resulted from a hybrid of citron and lime. I wanted to post it but don’t have Dope access at work.
Have you ever seen a citron? It looks just like an overgrown blobby lemon. Whereas the limes of South India, presumably close to the original cultivar, are a dull greenish-yellow color and are the size and shape of golf balls. It does seem likely that crossing the citron blob with the lime golf ball could result in the ovoid lemon as we know it.
BTW, the species name for citron, Citrus medica, is not a reference to medicinal properties of the plant. It refers to the ancient land of Media in northern Iran, land of the Medes. The medick is another plant named for Media. Just as peaches were named for Persia.
In French they’re citron and citron vert.
I think the very regular fully-green limes and bright yellow lemons we see in a lot of western supermarkets are quite narrow examples of their breed. Over here (Dubai) there supermarkets always have these tiny, nearly spherical and smoother-skinned (less pitted) “Indian limes”. They’re cheap, and seem to taste quite similar to “normal” limes - which are several times more expensive.
In Australia, I’ve picked lemons from trees in a couple of places. One tree had lemons that were really, really thick skinned. They didn’t seem to be as sour as other, more conventional lemons. Another tree, in a different place, had lemons that were far more spherical than normal, with thick, orange skins. I really could have sworn they were oranges, but for the fact that inside they were yellow and tasted solely of lemon. Again, they seemed a little milder/less sour than supermarket lemons.
Around these here parts (the Spanish-speaking Caribbean) it is exactly the opposite.
The French namefor lime is lime or limette (le Petit Larousse). These names are probably neologisms adapted from English since limes were little known until relatively recently.
Botanists are unsastified with that explanation. So they have a name for everything. **Smiling Bandit ** you’re right. They are different species:
The lemon tree is a species of its own:
Citrus medica L. a. C. x limon. Synonyms: (C. medica x lime) (Citrus medica limonium). Citrons and rough lemons also belong to this species.
The lime tree is a hybrid belonging to the same species as oranges, grapefruit, tangerine etc.:
Citrus maxima a. C. aurantiifolia. Synonyms: (Citrus aurantiifolia hybr.) (C. limetta )
Source: Mabberley (Telopea 7: 167-172: A classification for edible citrus).
(Hope you’re all familiar with botanical naming )
Uh, I think we can assume that not everyone here is - that would be pretty odd if we were, in fact.
But that’s okay, I guess I don’t mind having no idea what you said.