Why We Call Dried Grapes Raisins

For years I've wondered why certain fruits, when dried, change their name, namely grapes (although the same is true with prunes, but that's another blog entry).

Most other dried fruits, such as figs, apricots, apples, etc, keep their fruity name and just add the word "dried" at the beginning.  But grapes seem to have evolved a different title when they're dried.  While finding out where the word came from is easy.  According to Wikepedia "The word raisin dates back to Middle English and is a loanword from Old French; in French, raisin means "grape," while a dried grape is referred to as a raisin sec, or "dry grape." The Old French word in turn developed from the Latin word racemus, "a bunch of grapes.""  This still doesn't explain why we use this word, and not dried grape.

Today I'm sure raisin marketing firms are pretty happy about the name change.  It would be much harder to sell people on "dried grapes" than it would be sell them on "raisins".  I just find it makes conversations with my French friends a little difficult.

CC