[Avodah] FRUITFUL QUESTION

[Zev Sero]

On 10/07/2011 12:29 PM, Alan Rubin wrote:
>> It's peculiar
>> to the English-speaking world, and arises from the fact that "apple" used
>> to be a generic term for all fruit
>
> The idea that the fruit of the tree in Gan Eden was an apple is not
> confined to the English speaking world.. The fruit is often shown as
> an apple in European art. My understanding is that the idea comes from
> the similarity of the Latin word for  apple malum to the word for
> evil.

AIUI the Latin word "malus" is a generic term for "fruit", just as the
English word "apple" used to be.

-- 
Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
zev at sero.name   the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will
                 return to all the places that have been given to them.
		                            - Yitzchak Rabin