pomophobe

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/3/2011 04:25 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>At first, thanks to increasing presbyopia, I read the word as
>_pornophobe_, an obvious oxymoron.
>
>But, "hates apples?" I don't get it.

As in "pome, n.1." =
"1.a. †A fruit of the apple kind, or one shaped
like an apple (obs. except in a technical sense:
see 1b); an apple (now poet. and rare)."
b. Bot. The type of fruit that is characteristic
of the apple ( Malus domestica), the pear ( Pyrus
communis), and related members of the family
Rosaceae, which consists of a fleshy, enlarged
receptacle enclosing a tough central core (the
true fruit), formed from several united carpels and containing the seeds."

(Or perhaps a fear of kings and cabbages.  Or
meatballs.  (See other definitions s.v.)

Joel

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