Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
first person to try tomato
English answer:
First person with the courage to try something new
Added to glossary by
Denyce Seow
Mar 18, 2007 01:46
17 yrs ago
English term
Singapore
Business & Legal Translator
Native in: English (Variants: US, Singaporean, UK) 
Works in: Chinese to English
first person to try tomato
English
Other
Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
Has anyone heard of this idiom? Can someone please explain?
They hope to use their influence in doing some promotion work for figure skating events and become "the first person to try tomato."
They hope to use their influence in doing some promotion work for figure skating events and become "the first person to try tomato."
Responses
| 4 +16 | First person with the courage to try something new |
JaneTranslates
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| 2 -2 | Doing promotion work in figure skating for the company (Tomato) |
Anna Maria Augustine (X)
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Responses
+16
31 mins
JaneTranslates
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Native in English
&
English
Puerto Rico
Quality and Integrity
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, English, English to Spanish, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
Selected
First person with the courage to try something new
A tomato is very different from other fruits and vegetables; the first person to try (taste) one had no way of knowing whether it would taste good, be poisonous, etc. I'm not sure what that has to do with figure skating, but I assume the people in question are trying to promote the sport in a new and different way.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Margaret Schroeder
: Tomatoes were long thought to be poisonous by European immigrants to the Americas. http://tinyurl.com/33gtkh
2 hrs
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Exactly. Thanks, GoodWords!
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| agree |
Richard Benham
3 hrs
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Thank you, Richard.
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
5 hrs
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Thank you, Jack.
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| agree |
Suzan Hamer
: I've never heard the expression used before, but yes, this is what it means. One would have had to be incredibly brave (or foolish?) to be the first to see if tomatoes were poisonous.
5 hrs
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And what about shrimp? Thank you, brave person in the dim past! And thank you, Suzan.
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| agree |
Edith Kelly
6 hrs
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Thanks, EdithK.
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| agree |
Mehmet Hascan
7 hrs
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Thank you, Mehmet.
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| agree |
Robert Fox
7 hrs
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Thank you, Robert.
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| agree |
P.L.F. Persio
9 hrs
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Thanks, "sofiablu." Haven't seen you in ages! My girls all loved the wooden tulips...
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| agree |
cmwilliams (X)
: the only web references for this expression are on English versions of Chinese web sites.
9 hrs
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Not surprising. I don't think I've ever heard the expression in quite that form, hence my confidence level of 4 instead of 5. Thank you, cmwilliams.
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| agree |
Will Matter
: People (mainly those of European descent) used to (mistakenly) think that tomatoes were poisonous, that's why they were originally called "love apples". Because they were thought to be poisonous the first person to actually eat one was pretty brave.
13 hrs
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Thank you, willmatter! I can't stand them raw--such an acid taste. It doesn't surprise me that people had their doubts. Now, in a stew, or a sauce, or all day in a crockpot with tough beef...
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| agree |
Sophia Finos (X)
17 hrs
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Thank you, Sophia.
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| agree |
Seema Ugrankar
21 hrs
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Thank you, Seema.
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| agree |
Deborah Workman
: This seems to be the gist. but since the tomato ref appears only on a few Chinese sites and isn't known to native Eng speakers, my guess is the idiom isn't English but that this "English" came from another source. (Could this be a back translation?)
23 hrs
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Maybe so--it certainly doesn't sound natural to me, though it was easy enough to understand. Thank you, Deborah.
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| agree |
Alexandra Tussing
1 day 2 hrs
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Thank you, Rusinterp.
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| agree |
Alfa Trans (X)
1 day 2 hrs
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Thank you, Marju.
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| agree |
ErichEko ⟹⭐
3 days 5 hrs
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Thank you, Erich.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks, everyone. I did not want to use this idiom because it is only found on Chinese websites. Since most of you here understand it, I think I am just going to use it."
-2
33 mins
Doing promotion work in figure skating for the company (Tomato)
Peer comment(s):
| disagree |
Richard Benham
: Huh? It says "try tomato".
3 hrs
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Are you trying to get points for disagreeing?
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| disagree |
Will Matter
: Not this time, for fairly obvious reasons.
13 hrs
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Oh! But why can't I have points for trying? Or a Nobel.
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Discussion