Fruit

Who invented the names of fruit? I have often wondered.

I imagine there was a Fruit Naming Board. And here I am, imagining it...

INT. FRUIT NAMING BOARD - DAY

BOSS:
Right, what have we got next?

LACKEY:
There's this one, Clive. This round, orange thing.

BOSS:
Skin's a bit tough.

LACKEY:
Yeah, you peel it off. And if you squeeze it, I reckon you could sell the juice in tiny bottles in pubs for a fortune.

BOSS:
Right. So it's round, and it's orange... I think a name suggests itself. We'll call it ... a round.

LACKEY:
Won't that cause confusion in pubs, Clive?

BOSS:
All right, an orange, then. What's next?

LACKEY:
Bit of bad news on the grape front.

BOSS:
What?

LACKEY:
Swindon's already claimed it for those little round ones that come in bunches.

BOSS:
Ah, bollocks! All right, we'll call it a yellow.

LACKEY:Clive, you can't just name fruits after their colour all the time. Besides, I think Swindon's got first dibs on that for the long curved thing they found.

BOSS:
Oh, this is just stupid. I know! I know the very thing that will stop the confusion. We'll call ours a grape-fruit.

LACKEY:
What? To distinguish it from the other sort of grape that's also a fruit?

BOSS:
Ian, who's the boss here? Next?

LACKEY:
We've got this peach. It's sweet as nectar, but, and here's the thing, it's got smooth skin.

BOSS:
What? It's got no fur and it's sweet as nectar, Ian? Nectar, Ian... Hmm, I know! An alo-peach-ia!

I bet that's exactly how it happened.