Is "verduras verdes" acceptable?
In today's Word of the Day example, "verdes" was used to describe "verduras". Does the word "verduras" not refer to green vegetables? Do we need to add the word "verdes" to indicate that they are green?
13 Answers
Both the words verdura and verde come from Latin vireo, meaning "to be green", so guess what the colour of the "verdura" should be. In principle, verdura applies mostly to green vegetable, but it is sometimes used for other vegetables too.
I suppose you could also say "El verdor de la verdura verde", if you want more reduncancy.
Is tomato not a fruit in Spanish? - afowen It's not in the U S A, in Spanish or in English. - lorenzo9
From a bloke down the pub:
Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a 'fruit', though it is not developed from the ovary: the strawberry is an example.
Although for practical porpoises, as fruits tend to be seen as sweet, I think (salad) vegetable is more fitting.
I had a hard time remembering the word verduras until I noticed it started with "verd" which is mighty close to green, and vegetables are green, at least some of them. The translator above says verduras is vegetable so it seems like you could have verduras verde, verduras amarillo y verduras rojo as well.
Read the word history for vegetable here. It is quite enlighening.
Most supermarkets wimp out on precise terminology and just say the "produce section". It would be so much better if they had separate sections for monocotyledons and dicotyledons (to keep all the botanists happy).
Verduras verdes es redundante y cacofónico, en mi opinión. Yo diría vegetales verdes (de color o madurez). Green can also refer to ripeness.
At least in some parts of Latin America the word "verduras" is used as a generic word meaning "vegetables" and excluding fruits.
So when a person says: "voy al mercado a comprar verduras", she or he may mean: "I'm going to get some lettuce, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, beans, leeks, yucca, sweet potatoes and sweet peppers" to make a nice "sopa de verduras y ensalada" (vegetable soup and a salad).
In this context, then "verduras verdes" is not as redundant as it would seem otherwise.
We also have the term "green grocer" in English and one would hardly be surprised to find carrots, turnips, potatoes and a host of other "non-green" things sold there.
What about this bad boy?
Fruit or veg?
And does vegetable come from eatable vegetation?
It comes from the Latin verb vegeo/vegere, meaning "to be alive", and from there vegeto/vegetare, "to live, to grow", and through several changes and through French, vegetable in English. "Vegetación" comes from the same root,
As Lazarus pointed out, sometimes verdura is used for any vegetable eaten raw, so you could hear someone saying verduras de hoja verde to differentiate lettuce from tomato or carrots.
Tomato is a fruit by botanical definition, a vegetable by culinary use. Very simple. Relative of the tomato include eggplant and peppers.
"Greens" is a common culinary word in the UK. So I suppose it fits nicely with Verdes It's specifically vegetables of that colour here though. Is that the distinction in Spanish, that verduras tends to be general and perhaps verdes is specifically "greens"?
If so the English equivalent is "vegetables" and "greens"
