Language rules even more puzzling than apple names
Today’s question:
I am an intelligent educated person but this I do not understand: When something, such as a date is moved ahead, it is said to be pushed back. Why not moved ahead? A recent headline on an article said that “US moves ahead with ….” and at the end of the article it said “the date has been pushed back again.” Please explain.
Boy howdy, that’s a good one. It opens up all sorts of discussions about how we see time and our place in it, and those discussions could go on all day and at the end of it my brain would hurt and we still wouldn’t have a very good answer.
You could look at like this: Say you physically pushed away someone you didn’t want close to you. They would fall back, right?
OK, that was lame.
We’re just going to have to leave it at this: English is a beautiful, confounding and flexible language that very few people really understand.
In the fall the stores seem to have an incredible choice for apples. How did the original names the Jazz apple and the Tango come about?
Jazz apples are a cross between two New Zealand apples, the Braeburn and Royal Gala. ENZA (formerly known as the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board) holds the trademark.
Tangos — the real name is SweeTango — are a hybrid of two other varieties developed by the University of Minnesota, the honeycrisp and the Minnewasheta, marketed as Zestar. The registered trademark is owned by the university.
I found a list of recognized varieties of apple and stopped counting at 40 while I was only in the B’s. The listed began with aceymacs and ended with Zuccalmalgio’s reinettes. I can only assume all those names come from breeders, marketers, tradition, local lore and time immemorial.
Have a question for Clay? Reach him at 602-444-8612 or clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com.