"fruit" in seven languages
Meaningfruit
Spanish
/ˈfɾuta/
fem.learned
Semi-learned: a fully inherited form would show ch for ct. Fruta (from the plural FRUCTA) is what you eat; fruto is botanical or figurative.
French
/fʁɥi/
masc.inherited
Italian
/ˈfrutta/
fem.inherited
Frutta is the collective (from the neuter plural FRUCTA); un frutto is a single fruit.
Portuguese
/ˈfɾutɐ/
fem.learned
The inherited shape was Old Portuguese fruito, with -CT- → -it- as in leite; fruta is a semi-learned remake.
Romanian
/frukt/
neut.learned
plural: fructe
Usually plural: fructe.
Catalan
/ˈfɾujtə/
fem.inherited
Catalan shows the regular -CT- → -it-, as in fet (FACTUM) and nit (NOCTEM).
English
/fɹut/
from Latin/French · Old French fruit
The Latin ancestor
FRŪCTUM‘produce, enjoyment, fruit’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Spanish and Italian both built a feminine collective from the Latin neuter plural FRUCTA, so la fruta and la frutta mean fruit as food, while el fruto and il frutto keep the singular.
English relatives: fruit, fructose, fruition
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esComo mucha fruta.
- frJe mange beaucoup de fruits.
- itMangio molta frutta.
- ptComo muita fruta.
- roMănânc multe fructe.
- caMenjo molta fruita.
- enI eat a lot of fruit.