Why is a Pineapple called a Pineapple?
So how is it that English managed to go so very wrong linguistically? To figure out where things went wrong, we have to go back and look at how Europeans first encountered the fruit in question, which is native to South America. It was first catalogued by Columbus' expedition to Guadeloupe in 1493, and they called it piña de Indes, meaning "pine of the Indians", because they thought the fruit looked like a pine cone.
Columbus was on a Spanish mission and, dutifully, the Spanish still use the shortened form piñas to describe the fruit. But almost every other European language (including Portuguese, Columbus's native tongue) decided to stick with the name given to the fruit by the indigenous Tupí people of South America: ananas, which means "excellent fruit."
According to mentalfloss.com, the English word ‘ pineapple’ was first applied to the fruit in 1664, but even as late as the 19th century there are examples of both forms in concurrent use within the English language. Take the title of Thomas Baldwin's 1813 book Short Practical Directions For The Culture Of The Ananas; Or Pine Apple Plant.
So given that we knew what both words meant, why didn't English speakers just let go of this illogical and unhelpful linguistic distinction? The ultimate reason may be: We just think our own language is better than everyone else's.
