# Why are tomatoes called "love apples"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 19, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849 "2005-11-19T22:32:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/1 "2005-11-19T22:32:35Z")
I read that one reason was that they have lots of seeds and are therefore inherently referential to fertility. I don’t really buy that theory, since many fruits have lots of seeds. I have my own theory, but I’d like to know what I can learn about it from the Teeming Masses. Or even one teeming mass. Any help, dopers? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/2 "2005-11-19T22:37:19Z")
From Wiki and from what I heard in my Italian household growing up. > [@](#): > > Tomatoes were originally known as ‘Love Apples’, possibly based on a mistranslation of the Italian name pomo d’oro (golden apple) as pomo d’amoro. Jim ---
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/3 "2005-11-20T02:01:20Z")
I always heard that it was called a “love apple” because it was considered to be something of an aphrodasiac centuries ago when first imported. I seem to recall it also being considered poisonous at about the same time. Somebody add some facts to this confusion please. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/4 "2005-11-20T02:37:22Z")
> [@ombre3](#): > > I always heard that it was called a “love apple” because it was considered to be something of an aphrodasiac centuries ago when first imported. > > I seem to recall it also being considered poisonous at about the same time. > > Somebody add some facts to this confusion please. Seems there’s a possibility the term is a corruption of _pome dei Moro_ or “Moorish apple”, with some sites stating there’s a [connection](http://iberianature.com/material/tomatoes.htm) with Catalan speakers. Because it sounded like _pomme d’amour_ to the French, the name stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/5 "2005-11-20T02:41:27Z")
When Tomatoes were first introduced to Europe, the varieties grown were the sorts with golden-yellow fruit, so when it was first described by the Italian Botanist Matthiolus in 1544, he called it _golden apple_, which was later corrupted to pomodoro. My sources-to-hand don’t say that this was directly connected with the reputation as an aphrodisiac, however, the fruits were generally regarded with great suspicion in Northern Europe, because most of the similar fruits in the _solanaceae_ with which they were familar, are poisonous. My memory wants to say that the aphrodisiac thing was coined by northern Europeans based on a false correlation between the stereotype of lusty, passionate southern Europeans, and their enthusiastic uptake of the tomato, but I can’t support this idea with any evidence right now. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/6 "2005-11-20T03:34:28Z")
Not to mention wolf peaches. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/7 "2005-11-20T03:43:10Z")
> [@Shoshana](#): > > Not to mention wolf peaches. \*Lycopersicon \*comes from the poisoned meat that was thrown out to destroy wolves. Speaking of wolves, **Ice Wolves** explanation is the one that I have read. A good example of early spin doctoring. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-tomatoes-called-love-apples/331849/8 "2005-11-20T03:46:50Z")
btw, I may have been because of the name apple-of-love that the tomatoe was not accepted in North America until the 1830s. Should have changed the name to apple-of-fear for this puritan market.