pineapple
n. C / Un. a large, sweet fruit with a tough, prickly skin and a bunch of green leaves on top. It is yellow inside and very juicy.
n. a large tropical fruit with a tough, scaly exterior and sweet, fibrous yellow flesh. Refers to both the plant and the fruit itself.
I bought a fresh pineapple for the fruit salad.
The chef grilled slices of pineapple to serve alongside the spicy pork tacos for a sweet contrast.
Historically a symbol of hospitality and wealth due to its rarity in temperate climates, the pineapple is now a staple of global agriculture, primarily cultivated in tropical regions.
From Middle English pinappel (“pinecone”, literally “pine-apple/pine-fruit”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīnapplu. Later applied to the fruit of the pineapple plant due to its resemblance to a pinecone. Compare the Middle Dutch and Dutch pijnappel (“pinecone", formerly also "pineapple”), Afrikaans pynappel (“pineapple”), Middle Low German pinappel, Old High German pīnapful, Middle High German pīnaphel, and early Modern German pinapfel — all in the sense of “pine cone”. Compare also the post-Classical Latin pomum pini, the Old French pume de pin, the Middle French and French pomme de pin and Spanish piña. By surface analysis, pine + apple. Sense "An Australian fifty dollar note": From the yellow colour of a $50 banknote in the first, second, and third series of rice Australian dollar notes. Compare with lobster for a $20 Australian banknote, and watermelon for a $100 Australian banknote.
Uncountable when referring to the food as a substance; countable when referring to the individual whole fruits.