AIBU to expect a supermarket checkout person to know what an aubergine is?

[thomsc]

That it is a VEGETABLE and that it starts with an A?

I mean... ok, perhaps you might not know what an aubergine is, but her next question (whilst holding it) was "is it a vegetable?"! No, it's a type of biscuit!

She then said she couldn't deal with it as it didn't have a barcode. When I suggested that she weighed it and told the till what it was, she looked under 'O' in the list of vegetables.

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Where do you live Thomsc?

I read something, admittedly a few years back, that the majority of Scottish men can't name more than 5 vegetables.

Mind you, I live 'down south' and I know plenty of young people who wouldn't recognise an aubergine if it came up and bit their arse.

[takes moment to preen obnoxiously]

I drill my children in vegetable recognition skills.

My three year old can spot the difference between a courgette and a cucumber at 5 yards.

My God tittybang!

Do aubergines bite?

No wonder girl on checkout was wary.

"Aubergine" is a French word. Maybe if you asked for "Eggplant", you would see more people recognizing the term.

Aubergine is an English word that is borrowed from French. Much like the words "people" and "term", in fact.

Eggplant is not a British word so I doubt it would have more success.

Orange is a Hindi word borrowed from Spanish and then slurred.

I live in Brixton, South East London.

not pertinent, I just like the word.

Someone remind me what 'rutabaga' is in English.......?

rutabaga= swede, no?

And there was me thinking "naranja" (Spanish for orange) came from Arabic. But then the Arabs probably got it from Hindi.

You are probably right duchesse.

I think it is originally Sanskrit. Went to Arabic, with a change or two, through trade and thence to Spain and the rest of Europe.

Since I need to get out more, I like the metanalysis that creates 'an orange' from 'a norange'.

Or rather, "une orange" rather than "une narange", surely?

apparently it was 'a norange' in English for a period.

another possibility is that it moved from naranja to orange in French (actually 'pume orenge' for a while) because of the name of the town of Orange which was an import hub.

hard to pin it down.

I wasn't disputing that it was the same process in English - just that I thought it had probably happened first in French and come to us "intact".

But I'm just guessing.

What a mysterious fruit ...