Greek nuts

I was innocently thinking about peanuts and asked my Greek boyfriend how to say it in (modern) Greek, and it almost initiated WWIII.

Nuts in general are called ξηροί καρποί (lit. dry fruits; not to be confused with αποξηραμένα φρούτα which are dried fruits), which btw comes from ancient Greek καρπός meaning fruit, which gave karpuz in Turkish (via Persian, “xarboz” meaning melon) meaning watermelon, which gave back in turn in modern Greek καρπούζι (watermelon). But I’m losing track.

So amongst nuts you’ll find καρύδια (walnuts), φουντούκια (hazelnuts), αμύγδαλα (almonds; Greek and other languages took this word to name tonsils), πεκάν/ελαιοκάρυδα (pecan), κάσιους (cashew), κάστανα (chestnuts), κουκουνάρια (pine nuts), ηλιόσποροι (sunflower seeds), μακαντάμια (macadamia nuts). But something got me very confused: I was looking for peanuts and only found the word φιστίκι, which means pistachio.

Well I’ll have you know that φιστίκι does mean both pistachio and peanut, but if you want to be more specific about peanuts you can call them Arabic (αράπικο φιστίκι). It comes from the Turkish word fıstık, meaning pistachio.

I’m officially going nuts.