An Identity Problem However You Slice It

Q: Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

A: It may be a vegetable in the supermarket, but everywhere else it is a fruit. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a fruit--in a strict botanical sense--is the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a plant, enclosing the seed or seeds. So apricots, bananas and grapes are fruits. But so, too, are bean pods, corn grains, tomatoes, cucumbers and (in their shells) acorns and almonds.