Why are coconuts called nuts? [closed]
Why are coconuts called that if they are not nuts? They are just seeds of the coconut tree. They don't even resemble nuts. I can understand that peanuts are called that because people did not know they are legumes, but why are coconuts called nuts?
Solution 1:
Just as many things commonly called vegetables are botanically fruits, so too are many things that are commonly called nuts botanically something else again.
The OED says that a nut is the following
I. A hard edible kernel, and related senses.
- a. A fruit or seed with a hard or leathery shell enclosing a relatively hard edible or oil-yielding kernel; the kernel itself; (Botany) a hard, indehiscent, usually one-seeded fruit, often surrounded by a cupule.
With this additional note clarifying the matter:
Many plant products commonly called nuts are technically seeds (e.g. the Brazil nut) or types of fruit other than that defined botanically as a nut: for example, the peanut is a legume (or the seed in a legume), the coconut a drupe, the macadamia nut a follicle, etc.
You just cannot expect regular people to stop calling anything that isn’t a hard, indehiscent, and usually one-seeded fruit a “nut”.
Why, if you did that, you’d have to also make them stop calling things “berries” which botanically are not berries, such as raspberries and strawberries, and make them start calling things like tomatoes and cucumbers and bananas “berries” because they are!