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TIL a Canadian town Tisdale used to have a motto "The land of rape and honey" which was changed to "Opportunity grows here" in 2016. (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/5748983

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Remiliera on 2025-04-26 11:15:07+00:00.

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[-] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago

As others mentioned it was rape as "rapeseed". Unfortunate homophone of another word referring to non-consensual sex.

Middle English borrowed the word "rape" (for the seed) straight from Latin, rapum, rapa. The Latin word actually refers to turnips, but they're relatives and their flowers look really similar:


Top is turnip (Latin rapa), bottom is rape. Latin inherited it from Proto-Indo-European *[s]rā́p- "wild cabbage, turnip"; it's a really weird word, that *ā shows it was borrowed into Late PIE from some pre-IE language.

Then the word referring to non-consensual sex was from Norman French "rap" instead. It's ultimately from Latin "rapere" (to seize, capture, rape), in turn inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rep- "to snatch".

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Isnt that canola?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Canola is rapeseed.

Apparently it's etymology is from 70's from "Canada" +"oleum" (from latin).

So I guess someone just thought to rebrand "rapeseed".

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Most rapeseed oil at the time wasn't used for food, too much linoleic(?) acid; canola was rebranding a low-acid cultivar that was more suitable for cooking.

We produce a shitload of the stuff

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Oh. Yeah never knew about the cultivar thing. It was before I knew about such things. It's just called rapsiöljy in Finland and there's fields of it. Always used that for cooking, only started using olive oil like last year.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

You dont want to cook with olive oil. The smoke point is too low.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Depends on what you're making. You don't want to fry with it, no, but it's excellent for marinara and pasta etc etc

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

As other users highlighted, canola is a specific cultivar of rapeseed. The name is for Canadian oil, low acidity. It was originally a brand.

Wiktionary also lists "colza", ultimately from Dutch koolzaad (cabbage seed). I never saw it in English, only in Portuguese (and even then it was an "ackshyually" moment).

[-] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago

The land of Canola and honey just doesn't have the same ring to it.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Canola wasn't around then. Canola is a lo acid version or whatever of rapeseed.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Thatsthejoke.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

The Land of Rape and Honey is a good album

[-] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

The rape was refering to rape seed. Belive Canola is a modified form of it.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

The land of the rape seed...

Thanks for clearing that up.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

So tired of the wokeness

(Am I doing it right?)

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

What does "rape and honey" mean in this context? Is this a metaphor?

As a non native English speaker i would interpret "rape and honey" into the sexual abuse and the bee food.

[-] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

Rapeseed is a plant that is grown for its oil and is called "rape" for short.

As a native English speaker, I'd assume most people have the same first thought as you and is why they changed it.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

That oil is more commonly called canola, by the way. Canadian Oil, Low Acid. Used for the same reason the motto was changed.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Having to promote it as "rape oil" would be a marketing department's nightmare.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I think you'd sometimes see it as "rapeseed oil" - still not great, but better.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

No Canola is different then rapeseed. I mean it's a modified version of it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

How is Canola different than Rapeseed when it just comes from a different variety of Rapeseed? It's like saying grape juice isn't grape juice just because it came from a white grape instead of a concord grape.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

It's more like it's called rapeseed for long. It used to just be called "rape", but people wanted to distinguish the name from the other meaning and it's mostly the seeds we grow it for

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Note that canola is a variety of rapeseed.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The unfortunately named rapeseed

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Oddly enough it's a total coincidence that they are homonyms. The plant's name comes from the Latin name for turnip, rapum

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Rapum, I hardly know 'em!

(I'm probably gonna regret posting this)

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

wait a fucking second, that's a Brassica

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Basically everything is

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Thanks this explains a lot.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Rapeseed

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

And we're all out of honey... https://9gag.com/gag/aQ3nRBw

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed

That is the plant they where referring to originally.

this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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