That's just science as applied by engineers.

I don't think vegetable is a botanical term. So fruit and vegetable aren't really mutually exclusive.

As they say, intelligence is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

(That's the saying, but IMO it's wisdom to know and intelligence to not do it, maybe I'm mixing things up).

'Fruit de la mere' is obviously just some attempted tax dodge.

More people ought to learn about the programming language concept of namespaces. Generalize from that and you realize that every domain of discourse has its own namespace of words that have different meanings from those same words outside the domain.

My favourite is math which has loads of wonderfully generic-sounding terms such as rational, irrational, radical, real, imaginary, complex, group, ring, field, category, set, operator, element, and unit which all have radically different meanings from the everyday senses of those words.

A pdf to clear it up, and confuse you more... maybe. https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/wp-extension/uploads/sites/2073/2020/04/Is-it-a-Fruit-or-a-Vegetable.pdf

No. What is or isn't a vegetable is determined entirely by whether we collectively consider any given plant or plant part a food item.

No worries, "being smug over the meanings of words that aren't ever actually used in a consistent way" is done over here in Europe as well. People have the exact same conversations you list as examples. I would even go so far and say that this is true for the whole world and throughout time, a human condition. I would also think that it really isn't about the words/language, but rather about having control over the conversation and power over others.

I don't see much difference between the Parmesan case and Apple sueing against a vaguely similiar looking logo.

How them toads taste?

I don’t understand. A game boy is a Nintendo.

For lent-related purposes, I presume? Same as beavers.

Squirrels too.

Either we're all fish, whales and dolphins are fish, or nothing is fish. All three positions are perfectly justifiable depending on your critieria, so take your pick.

Almost, but not quite. Fruto and fruta are not two genders of the same word, but two different words, with different sources words (fruto fructus and fruta fructa)

Meanings are very similar, so there's a lot of mixup.

Treat yourself next time you find them to a jar of kalamatas.

You weren't kidding!

California enforces many wildlife regulations. CESA, or the California Endangered Species Act, is designed to keep animal and plant life from extinction. The law covers any threatened “bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.”

Insects weren’t mentioned in the specific act’s wording. However, a separate California regulation legally defines fish as “a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”
So, are bees actually fish? Yes, because all invertebrates are according to California law. The broad definition of fish allows activists to fight for insect survival.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has clarified that “It was not believed necessary to include the term invertebrate in the original legislation because ‘fish’ is defined in the Fish and Game Code to include ‘invertebrates’…”

Talk about by-the-book!

aubergine

Doesn't exist in the US

Now I get why some (a ?) states declared pizza a veggie or something like that? Like if vegetable is a culinary term it makes sense you could classify pizza as a vegetable. But like, why the fuck is law declaring what anything is culinary?