If an orange is called an orange??

Question

Why isn't a banana called a bendy or a pineapple called a spikey?
Life would be so much easier if things were called after there apperance.

Answer 1

I think I can live with the term "yellow bendy".
Shall I ask my greengrocer for a handfull of yellow bendies tonorrow?

Answer 2

In theory I understand your principal of thinking, but unfortunately it just wouldn't work. Alot of other things also bend and there are also other spiky things besides pineapples.

Everything has a unique name (where the names have come from is basically anyone's guess) as which to identify itself.

Have a lovely rest of the evening.

Answer 3

Ha that's true but a bendy and spikey could describe alot of things!!

Answer 4

I don't think it would be easier. There are alot of bendy things in the world! It would get confusing!

Answer 5

Things are called after their
appearance enough for me.
Just look on any job application.

Before Orange was a fruit,
it was a Market Town, in France.

Answer 6

A pineapple IS named after its appearance.

Answer 7

Because who could say with a straight face, "I think I'll have a bendy."

Answer 8

But if things were called after their appearance, why isn't an orange called round?

Answer 9

It would work for simple things...

But imagine how complex other items and places would become!

Shop: Lotsofstuffyoucanbuyinabuildingwithatill
Road: Flatconcreatewithlinesonitthatyoudriveon

So, "Im just popping down the road to the shop."

Becomes:

"Im just popping down the Flatconcreatewithlinesonitthatyoudriveon to the Lotsofstuffyoucanbuyinabuildingwithatill."

Maybe thats how the Welsh language works! ;-)

Answer 10

Because english speakers weren't creative enough to name it something else. Of course, there's the french who call potatoes "apples of the earth" (pomme de terre).