My girlfriend's family had a huge, long discussion about what constitutes a fruit vs a vegetable. Dictionaries were pulled out; encyclopedias were consulted; the internet was delved for information.
In the end, as it turns out, it's a "squares vs rectangles" question. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. All fruit are vegetables (the root word, "vegeta," as in "vegetation," is the clue), but not all vegetables are fruits.
The actual definition of a fruit has something complicated to do with seeds (that's a whole other long conversation), and the *legal* definitions of either are different from the *etymological* definitions.
But, either way, an apple is a vegetable. It is also a fruit. The same cannot be said for a carrot.
My girlfriend's family had a huge, long discussion about what constitutes a fruit vs a vegetable. Dictionaries were pulled out; encyclopedias were consulted; the internet was delved for information.
In the end, as it turns out, it's a "squares vs rectangles" question. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. All fruit are vegetables (the root word, "vegeta," as in "vegetation," is the clue), but not all vegetables are fruits.
The actual definition of a fruit has something complicated to do with seeds (that's a whole other long conversation), and the *legal* definitions of either are different from the *etymological* definitions.
But, either way, an apple is a vegetable. It is also a fruit. The same cannot be said for a carrot.