Pineapple vs Ananas: Name Origins

In 1493, on the island of Guadeloupe, Christopher Columbus tasted a fruit the locals called 'nana'. He brought it back to Europe, and in most languages-French, Italian, Russian-it became ‘ananas’. But in England, when traders saw the fruit’s tough, spiky skin, they thought it looked a lot like the pine cones from Scottish forests. So they called it 'pine-apple', even though it grows nowhere near pine trees. Both 'ananas' and 'pineapple' describe the exact same fruit, just with different inspirations-one naming its flavour, the other its appearance. For example, in Germany you buy 'Ananas', but in Manchester it’s always 'pineapple'. To remember: most of Europe sticks to ‘ananas’, but English went for the pine tree look. Columbus’s discovery explains why one fruit, two famous names.