Zun

I found some drumsticks at the farmers market.

While prepping them for cooking I started wondering about words that exist in other languages but don’t have an analog in English. Zun is one and in Konkani means a fruit or vegetable whose seeds are viable (while the fruit may not be ripe). If you pick a zun fruit/vegetable, allow it to dry and then plant it, it will germinate.

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Zun is also used when referring to people. If the person is older, it means senile and for a kid, it’s usually used in the negative sense, as in you’re not yet zun, grasshopper, wait a few years.

That got me wondering: is there a word in English that means something similar? I guess I could use mature, since zun seems to be the equivalent of puberty in fruits, but that’s not quite it. And while we do call vegetables tender, it does not convey the same meaning.

Aah, languages!

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