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[–] 12 points 1 month ago (7 children)

In french, that's really the name that is given to them, colloquially : doigts de pied (foot fingers)

The real term is orteils (toes)

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    They're really good at it, too. Sometimes it's even charming. For example, potatoes are "earth apples."

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    I wonder if the meaning of pomme was broader in Old French, like how meat (from mete) used to mean food in Old English.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    Yes it was the case, broadly pomme meant fruit.

    Originally tomatoes were called pommes d'amour. There is pommes de terre (potatoes) pommes de pin (pinecones). If we would translate literally pomme de pin it would give us pineapple.

    There were also other fruits beginning with pomme originally but I can't seem to recall them.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    It's the same in Dutch - "aardapple" - but using the Dutch words for earth and apple rather than the French ones.

    And don't get me started on French numbering - for example 98 is "four twenties eigtheen".

    One doesn't get it for one's own language because all the weird stuff is "normal" but when you're learning other languages you discovered they're all riddled with funny constructs like this (and then there are expressions, which are often hilarious - for example on of the Dutch expression for wasting time on small details literally translates to "fucking ants")

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