this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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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 10 months ago by realitista@lemm.ee to c/til@lemmy.ca
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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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 35 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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".

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Isnt that canola?

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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".

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 3 points 10 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

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 4 points 10 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).

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thatsthejoke.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

The Land of Rape and Honey is a good album

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

The land of the rape seed...

Thanks for clearing that up.

[–] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

So tired of the wokeness

(Am I doing it right?)

[–] MemmingenFan923@feddit.org 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 33 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] EchoCranium@lemmy.zip 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

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

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 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.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 4 points 10 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

[–] Malgas@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

Note that canola is a variety of rapeseed.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

The unfortunately named rapeseed

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Rapum, I hardly know 'em!

(I'm probably gonna regret posting this)

[–] match@pawb.social 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

wait a fucking second, that's a Brassica

[–] YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub 8 points 10 months ago

Basically everything is

[–] MemmingenFan923@feddit.org 4 points 10 months ago

Thanks this explains a lot.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Rapeseed

[–] dwarkent@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

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

[–] glowing_hans@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 months ago

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

That is the plant they where referring to originally.