Poll of the Day > Why does English call Vanilla pods beans, when they are not beans?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Been reading up a bit on vanilla, since I was not sure I could replace vanilla extract with vanilla sugar.

Took me a long time again to remember that when English texts refer to vanilla beans, it actually means the pods. I keep imagining actual bean shaped vanilla...

Probably because they look a lot like green beans.

Technically it is not a pod either, it is a fruit. What we consider "vanilla" is actually the seeds of that fruit.

The word "bean" and its Germanic cognates (e.g. German Bohne) have existed in common use in West Germanic languages since before the 12th century, referring to broad beans, chickpeas, and other pod-borne seeds. This was long before the New World genus Phaseolus was known in Europe. After Columbian-era contact between Europe and the Americas, use of the word was extended to pod-borne seeds of Phaseolus, such as the common bean and the runner bean, and the related genus Vigna. The term has long been applied generally to many other seeds of similar form, such as Old World soybeans, peas, other vetches, and lupins, and even to those with slighter resemblances, such as coffee beans, vanilla beans, castor beans, and cocoa beans. Thus the term "bean" in general usage can refer to a host of different species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean#Terminology

West-Germanic should be close language wise, but in Dutch we exclusively call them "Vanilla Sticks".

We call these beans when we feel like it, try and stop us

Always called them pods myself. Can't say I've ever heard anyone in England call them beans. I live and learn it seems.

The vanilla pods and vanilla beans are two different things. Like Pea pods and Peas. Vanilla beans are scrapped from the inside of the pod.

American English calls them beans too??

Dikitain posted...

Technically it is not a pod either, it is a fruit.

A musical one