Bright yellow citrus fruits with sour juice, or slang for defective products that don't work properly.
From Arabic 'laymūn' through Medieval Latin 'limon' and Old French 'limon', the fruit came to Europe via the Arab trade routes. The meaning shifted to 'defective product' in American slang in the early 1900s.
The lemon's journey from Asian orchards to European nobility to American car lots is wild—it's one word that traveled the entire Silk Road and then got slapped onto used cars! The fruit was so exotic that only the wealthy could afford it in medieval Europe.
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