The boletus and satan's boletus, the frog and the toad, the chestnut and the chestnut are distinctions of importance.
The former are deliciously edible, while the latter are poisonous.
“Chestnut: female of the chestnut
,” wrote Gustave Flaubert in his
Dictionary of Received Ideas.
The common misuse of language which consists of saying
"chestnut"
instead of
"chestnut"
does not help to differentiate them.
At Christmas, there will hopefully only be chestnuts in your
“chestnut”
turkey .
And the
candied “chestnuts”
, these delicious candies eaten too quickly, will also be chestnuts, otherwise abdominal pain will spoil the party.
Similarly, it is wrongly said
"chestnut cream"
, hence the famous
"Marron'Suis"
marketed by La Laitière.
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If we are talking about the production of
"chestnuts"
, as far as the cultivated fruit is concerned, we therefore call the chestnut
"brown"
when it is processed and put in the mouth.
The chestnut was indeed the staple food in poor homes in the 19th century, and it was also often served to pigs.
It was therefore preferred the more noble name of
"chestnut"
.
Read also“It’s uncomfortable”: what this expression says about you
How not to be mistaken?
Because eating a chestnut can cause nausea and stomach pain.
In a chestnut bug, bristling with many fine prickles, you will find three fruits.
The bug is topped with a small spike, the remains of the dried pistil.
The chestnut, on the other hand, has its bug with short, thick, more widely spaced spikes, and you will only find a much rounder fruit when opening it.
Identifying where they come from also allows for easy tracking.
Does the fruit come from a tree planted in town, in an alley or schoolyard?
It's probably a brown one.
Is the fruit, on the contrary, picked up in a forest or an orchard?
It is surely a chestnut.
The French language therefore discriminates against chestnuts in favor of chestnuts.
The expressions around the latter are not lacking.
“Pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for someone”
is doing someone a favor in a risky way.
Mérimée thus quotes in one of his
Letters “the simpletons who imagine themselves working for themselves and who draw chestnuts from the fire for others”
.
A
"chestnut"
that we flank or cash in is a punch.
“Hot chestnuts!”
, it is also often said to evoke a delicate operation.
In a more aged sense, the adjective
"brown"
is used to designate the clandestine.
A “brown”
pig
is a pig that escaped back to the wild.
A “brown”
doctor
is practicing his activity illegally.
As for
"marronage"
, or
"marronage"
, it historically designates the escape of a slave.
