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fun with language
Sep. 7th, 2007 03:23 pmI learned a lovely new word today: drupel. It's the diminutive of drupe, which refers to a fleshy or pulpy fruit that encloses a stone containing seeds (e.g. an olive, plum, or peach). A drupel, also known as a drupelet, is a tiny version of a drupe in an aggregate fruit. Ergo, a blackberry is a cluster of small black drupels.
As you might then guess, a raspberry is a cluster of small red drupels. And in verifying that, I learned another nifty thing: the slang term "to blow a raspberry" (thppppppt) derives from cockney rhyming slang, shortened from "raspberry tart." You can probably deduce what "tart" rhymes with.
(I'm having a supremely frustrating workday -- two days ago I was in chapter 26, but now I'm back in chapter 21 and I'm NEVER GETTING OUT OF IT -- so, yes, I was looking for distraction. And this just kind of pleased me.)
As you might then guess, a raspberry is a cluster of small red drupels. And in verifying that, I learned another nifty thing: the slang term "to blow a raspberry" (thppppppt) derives from cockney rhyming slang, shortened from "raspberry tart." You can probably deduce what "tart" rhymes with.
(I'm having a supremely frustrating workday -- two days ago I was in chapter 26, but now I'm back in chapter 21 and I'm NEVER GETTING OUT OF IT -- so, yes, I was looking for distraction. And this just kind of pleased me.)
