Tomato

Tomatoes

oil painting

canvas size: 8 x 10

artist: Rogelio Babanto

Those "affected" people who pronounce it "toe-mah-toe" are historically correct. The plant was first called tomate in Spain when introduced there from the New World, and even in the early 16th century it was pronounced in three syllables. The o incidentally has no place at all in "tomato," apparently being there because mid-18th-century Englishmen erroneously believed that it should have this common Spanish ending.