Grapeshot and Grapefruit Are Both Named for Clusters
A grape is a small fruit growing in bunches. Two unrelated-looking words borrowed the name from the way grapes grow.
A grape is a small round fruit that grows in tight bunches on a vine. Two other words take their name purely from the clustering: *grapefruit*, which grows in bunches on the tree rather than singly like an orange, and *grapeshot*, a naval munition of small iron balls packed together in a cluster. Neither tastes of grapes. The word came from Old French *grape*, originally a hook for picking, then the bunch it took.
- A vine fruit. *A bunch of grapes.*
- Grapefruit — the citrus. *Half a grapefruit.*
- Grapeshot — clustered projectiles. *A round of grapeshot.*
- Grapevine — the plant, or gossip. *Heard it on the grapevine.*
- Sour grapes — disparaging what you cannot have. *Sour grapes.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | grape | One grape. |
| Plural | grapes | Green grapes. |
| Compound | grapevine | A grapevine. |
| Compound | grapefruit | Grapefruit. |
| Old French | grape | A bunch, a hook. |
- The vines were heavy with grapes.Fruit.
- Grapefruit grows in clusters.The name's logic.
- I heard it on the grapevine.Idiom.
Grape idioms and their sources
- Sour grapes — from Aesop's fox, who called unreachable grapes sour
- Heard it on the grapevine — from the tangled telegraph wires of the 1860s
- Wrath of grapes — a modern joke on Steinbeck's title
- Grapeshot — small iron balls in a cluster, used at close range
- Grapefruit — named for growing in bunches
Old French *grape*, a bunch of grapes or a hook for picking, from a Germanic root related to *grapple*.
Why is grapefruit called that?
Because it grows in clusters on the tree, like grapes on a vine. The taste has nothing to do with it.
Where does sour grapes come from?
From Aesop's fable in which a fox, unable to reach some grapes, decides they must be sour anyway.