At one time the tomato was called a love apple. That was a mistake. This is how the mistake happened.
In the sixteenth century, Spain imported tomato form south America after Spanish explorers had landed there.
Spain then exported tomato to Morocco. Italian traders carried it onto Italy.
The Italian name for tomato was pomo de Mauro, apple of the Moores.
When French growers imported it from Italy, they thought de Mauro meant d'amour, the French word for love, and so pomme d'amour became the apple of love.
People believe many things about the apple. One belief is that it has great powers of keeping people healthy.
A very common expression is "an apple a day keeps the doctor away".
Another belief is based on fact. The expression is "one rotten apple spoils the barrel".
When an apple begins to go bad, it ruins all the other apples around it in the container.
The expression has come to mean that one bad person in a group can cause everyone to act bad.
