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Sunday 28 October 2012

Sunday Rest: Word Not To Use Today: jujube.

How on earth anyone can bear to put a jujube in his or her mouth beats me.

Apart from sounding heavy, gluey, and oozing, the word sounds much much too like do-do.

Eu!

It's bad enough that the word jujube means a chewy sweet, often with medicine hidden in it, but the wretched word means other things, too.

Zizipus jujuba, also a jujube, is a spiny tree with yellow flowers:

Image of Ziziphus

The edible fruits are called jujubes, too:

Jujube fruits

I must admit they look nice, and they may well be delicious.

Could I bear to try one?

Well, yes, I think I could, despite the do-do thing...

...as long as it had been really really thoroughly washed.

Word Not To Use Today: jujube. This word comes to us from the Mediaeval Latin jujuba, from the Latin zīzyphum from the Greek zizuphon.

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