NetherStray on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/netherstray/art/Crabapples-3-333805527NetherStray

Deviation Actions

NetherStray's avatar

Crabapples 3

By
Published:
124 Views

Description

In case you were wondering--because I sure was--here are some possible origins of the term "crabapple."

The crab apple is actually the wild apple, source of all domestic apples grown today. There are two thoughts about the origin of crab in this sense. The first notes that the Scottish form is scrab or scrabbe, seemingly from a Norse source, as there is Swedish skrabba "fruit of the wild apple tree". This would suggest that crab and crabbe are aphetic forms of a much older word. The other possibility is that it derives from crabbed, which itself means, etymologically, "crooked or wayward gait of a crab" and the several figurative senses that follow from that (disagreeable, contrary, ill-tempered, or crooked). One of those senses might have been applied to the fruit of the crab apple: not right, not pleasant, ill-flavored (because crab apples are very sour and astringent).
Image size
3072x2304px 2.57 MB
Make
SONY
Model
DSC-S750
Shutter Speed
1/125 second
Aperture
F/2.8
Focal Length
6 mm
ISO Speed
100
Date Taken
Oct 22, 2012, 4:27:43 PM
© 2012 - 2024 NetherStray
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In