getting back to pineapples-- the were available in Florida, the Caribbean, and other various places on the tropical east coast of the Americas(pre-columbian times)-- but seems to have been native to brazil. Columbus included some in his treasure trove-- and since pineapple can keep a long time-- they were still "fresh" when he got back to Spain. the name comes from the pina de los Indies-- (pine cone of the indies) -- as said else where-- "apple" was a generic word for a fruit-- so the name be came pine-apples pretty easily. The natives of brazil were the first to use them as signs of hospitality, too.
as for apples being a generic word-- its do to the nature of apple trees-- if you plant apple seeds-- they never come true to the fruit-- and apples have a lot of genetic diversity-- (something that most of us don't see, since now days there about 20 common varieties of apples available (and in many places only 5) and all of these varieties are pretty-- (the US delicious apple-- is the prettiest apple -- not a great tasting one.. but pretty) but in bygone days, when apples were grown for cider and pomace (the solid remain after cider pressing-- and animal food) people didn't much care what they looked like-- and there was a great deal of variety. So apples were small (ladies apples) and large (Rome beauties-- for those who know the apple --sometimes 2.5 to a pound --5 to 6 to a kilo) and came in green, yellow, red, and purple (I can't think of any common apple today that is purplish) With so much variety as to what was an apple-- apple was synonymous with "fruit"
I have read that the chinese word for apricots (no idea what it is) over 4000 years old.. There is evidence that apricots originated in china.-- but at for the rest of the fruits-- who knows? (and are rhubarbs a fruit? aren't they a vegetable? )
