an antfarm is neither an ant nor a farm...

...discuss...

a pineapple is neither a member of the pine family, nor a member of the apple family. discuss...

"Dr. Pepper" and "Mr. Pibb" would suggest that just as a mister is a less prestigious version of a doctor, a "pibb" is a less prestigious version of pepper.

Pass the salt and pibb, please.

-micah

I have often wondered about the pineapple..
Where does it belong? =]

yes, i've heard the thought about the pineapple before. not so much about the pibb thing, though

i did always wonder about the pineapple. i've never thought about the pibb thing though. interesting....:huh:

Explanation from Wikipedia on the Pineapple problem:

The name pineapple in English (or piña in Spanish) comes from the similarity of the fruit to a pine cone.

The word "pineapple", first recorded in 1398, was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit, they called them "pineapples" (term first recorded in that sense in 1664) because it resembled what we know as pine cones. The term "pine cone" was first recorded in 1695 to replace the original meaning of "pineapple".[1]

In the scientific binomial Ananas comosus, ananas comes the original name of the fruit comes from the Tupi (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) word for pineapple nanas, as recorded by André Thevenet in 1555 and comosus means "tufted" and refers to the stem of the fruit. Other members of the Ananas genus are often called pineapple as well by laymen.

:woohoo:

With regards to the antfarm question, it looks like the "technical" name for an antfarm is formicarium. Wikipedia states:

A formicarium is a vivarium which is designed primarily for the study of ant colonies and how ants behave. "Ant Farms," similar to these, are popular subjects for school projects. Those who study ant behavior are known as myrmecologists.

So there it is...Wikipedia, saving the world from unanswerable questions...

:P

Yeah, I'm sure Wikipedia can't save us from this one. What is a "Pibb" after all?

Wiki goes into it here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pibb_Xtra

...but doesn't say what the name came from.

Also, evidently a Goth band called The Malfated has written a song called "Dr. Pibb" here, slanting the two drinks against each other:
http://www.malfated.com/html/music.html

I fear we will never know the true answer to this mystery however...

micahtredding wrote:
"Dr. Pepper" and "Mr. Pibb" would suggest that just as a mister is a less prestigious version of a doctor, a "pibb" is a less prestigious version of pepper.

Pass the salt and pibb, please.

-micah

I wouldn't trust Wiki for too much... anyone can go in and edit the entries to say whatever they want. Students have come in to my work telling us they've been failed on papers for quoting Wiki.
I do love the word formicarium and plan to use it in a sentence today. :D