Crossword Dictionary
TOMATO
The tomato, (Solanum lycopersicum), a flowering plant of the nightshade family is cultivated extensively for its edible fruits. Labelled as a vegetable for nutritional purposes, tomatoes are a good source of vitamin C and the phytochemical lycopene. The fruits are commonly eaten raw in salads, served as a cooked vegetable, used as an ingredient of various prepared dishes, and pickled. Additionally, a large percentage of the world’s tomato crop is used for processing; products include canned tomatoes, tomato juice, ketchup, puree, paste, and “sun-dried†tomatoes or dehydrated pulp.
Tomato plants are generally much branched, with five-petaled flowers that are yellow, and fruits are berries that vary in diameter. They are usually red, scarlet, or yellow, though green and purple varieties do exist, and they vary in shape from almost spherical to oval and elongate to pear-shaped.
The plant requires relatively warm weather and much sunlight; it is grown chiefly in hothouses in cooler climates. Tomatoes are usually staked, tied, or caged to keep the stems and fruits off the ground, require consistent watering. The plants are susceptible to a number of pests and diseases, including bacterial wilt, early blight, mosaic virus, Fusarium wilt, nematodes, and tomato hornworms.
pronunciation
In Spanish "tomate" (pronounced "tom-ah-te"), uses a long "a" vowel (pronounced "ah") which is the closest vowel sound to the one heard in the original Nahuatl word. This pronunciation was then adopted by the British, who used a similar "ah" vowel. A series of changes that radically altered the pronunciation of the long vowels of English between the 15th and 17th centuries called The Great Vowel shift eventually lead to a change in the pronunciation to “to-MAY-toâ€, adopted by North Americans.