Pineapple originally meant pine cone in English; the tropical fruit was named for its resemblance to one, while nearly every other language calls it some form of ananas from the Tupi-Guaraní word.
A large tropical fruit with tough, spiny skin and sweet, juicy yellow flesh.
Originally, pineapple meant pine cone — a compound of pine (the tree) and apple (used generically for any fruit). When Europeans encountered the tropical fruit in South America, they called it pineapple because it resembled a large pine cone. Almost every other language uses some variant of the indigenous Tupi-Guaraní word ananás, making English's choice of name an outlier. Key roots: pinu (Latin: "pine tree"), apple (Old English
English is virtually alone in calling this fruit a pineapple. Spanish says piña, and nearly every other European language uses some form of ananas (from Tupi nanas, meaning 'excellent fruit'). The English word pineapple originally meant pine cone, and we renamed the pine cone after giving its name to the tropical fruit.