A Court Ruled the Tomato a Vegetable
A tomato is the fruit of a plant in the nightshade family. In 1893 the United States Supreme Court classed it as a vegetable for tax purposes.
A tomato is botanically a fruit and, in every kitchen, a vegetable. The dispute reached the United States Supreme Court in 1893, in Nix v. Hedden: imported vegetables were taxed and fruit was not. The court agreed the tomato was botanically a fruit and ruled it a vegetable anyway, because that is how people eat it. Ordinary usage beat botany, in law at least.
- The red fruit. *A ripe tomato.*
- The plant. *Tomato plants need support.*
- Tomato sauce — varies by country. *Pasta with tomato sauce.*
- Sun-dried tomatoes — preserved by drying. *Sun-dried tomatoes in oil.*
- Plural — tomatoes, with an e. *Six tomatoes.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | tomato | A green tomato. |
| Plural | tomatoes | Tinned tomatoes. |
| Nahuatl | tomatl | The source word. |
| Compound | tomato purée | Tomato purée. |
| Related | potato | New potatoes. |
- The tomatoes ripened late this year.The plural takes -es.
- Botanically it is a fruit.The distinction.
- Tomato sauce means ketchup in Australia.Regional difference.
Why Europe distrusted the tomato
- Nightshade family — related to plants that really are poisonous
- Pewter plates — their lead reacted with the acid, which caused genuine illness
- Grown as an ornament in parts of Europe for two centuries
- Italy adopted it early for cooking, and the association stuck
- Arrived from the Americas in the sixteenth century, along with potatoes and chillies
Spanish *tomate*, from Nahuatl *tomatl*. English changed the ending to -o by analogy with *potato*. It is recorded in English from the 1600s.
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
Botanically a fruit, since it develops from the flower and carries seeds. In cooking and, in America, in law, it is treated as a vegetable.
Why is the plural tomatoes and not tomatos?
English adds -es to most nouns ending in a consonant plus o. Potatoes and heroes follow the same rule.