Differences between a pip, stone and seed to do with fruit?

Question

Just been asked this one on eating fruit.

Apple pips and Cherry stones guess it is to do with the hardness of it. But then why don't we call it an apple seed?

Answer 1

The pip/stone/seed thing ... you're right: "stone" is about hardness.

"Seed" covers all pips, grain, nuts etc and means the ready-to-grow embryo of a plant.

You'd be perfectly correct to call an apple pip an apple seed... it's just that the English language has masses of very precise terms for plant/food-related things.

Actually, in the US, "apple seed" is often used: there's a famous story of a man called John Chapman, nicknamed "Johnny Appleseed", who spent years in the late 18th century planting apple seeds in the wilds of Kentucky, Ohio and a bunch of other states. Found a link here for you -- they use "apple seed". http://www.applejuice.org/johnnyapplesee...

Anyway, back to the definitions!

"Stone" isn't about size; it's about hardness. Dates, apricots, avocados, cherries, lychees and many other fruit have really hard, often woody seed-coverings. You couldn't bite into one without hurting your teeth.

"Pips" are more fleshy. You can bite into them quite easily (and don't they just taste yucky, in many cases!)... grapes, apples, pears and so on.

And, to complete the set, "nuts" are seeds with an edible kernel.

Hope that's a help.

=D