I’m a little interested in why the distinction between fruits and vegetables were even made and I’m not smart enough to word it well enough for google. I know that one grows above ground and the other doesn’t, but does this sole difference actually make them different foods? Sort of like how a strawberry isn’t really a berry because of where it grows but does it have some extreme chemical makeup difference that leads it to be well…not a berry?
In: Earth Science
It depends on context.
Vegetable can mean plants & fungi, when distinguishing things in “animal, vegetable, or mineral”. But generally it’s a culinary term, meaning edible bits of plants (and fungi): roots, stems, leaves, and fruits.
As a botanical term, fruit means seed-bearing bits of plants.
As a culinary term, fruit means *sweet* seed-bearing bits.
So cucumbers, chiles, eggplant, etc. are botanically fruits, but culinary vegetables.
Tomatoes have the distinction of [being recognized as vegetables](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden) by the US Supreme Court, in 1893.
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