Beulah, peel me the English language!

[shewhomust]

The tomatoes which went into last night's sauce didn't want to relinquish their peel. Sometimes after the boiling water treatment it sloughs off whole, like a glove, and sometimes you'd have to pare it off with a knife: last night was one of the latter times, and life's too short. So when durham_rambler fished something red out of the sauce and asked "What's this? Is it bacon?" (for he is ever the optimist), it didn't take me long to identify it as tomato skin.

But this morning I was thinking: tomato skin, or tomato peel? I said 'skin' automatically, and I stick to it. But I'd talk, as I just have, about peeling tomatoes, not skinning them. Likewise grapes: I'd peel a grape by removing the skin (and I'd certainly talk about the skins when I talk about wine making). What about peppers? If I put them under the grill until the skin blisters, am I peeling them, or skinning them? (I think, in fact, I'm removing their skin).

Oranges, on the other hand, have peel or rind - but I don't think they have skin. Well, between the segments, possibly, which suggests that the defining factor is thickness. Apples have peel, but neither rind nor skin; peaches and apricots have skin - is that because it's furry?

Is this a peculiarity of the language, or is it just me? And what do you call the shell of a pomegranate?

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

You posted this just as I was replying to la_marquise_de_ on very similar lines - and declining to be drawn into French, on the grounds that English is complicsted enough. They certainly have different words for skin (you can use 'peau' of vegetable matter, and Lexis says that it is synonymous with 'pelure' - peel - and 'écorce' - rind - though the English terms are broadly synonymous, too).