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moron4hiretoday at 4:32 PM1 replyview on HN

> a sense still encountered more rarely in English.

I don't know what you mean by that. People do talk about "the fruits of" their labors.


Replies

adrian_btoday at 4:40 PM

That it what I mean.

This old sense is encountered, like in your example, but much more often "fruits" is used in the culinary sense.

Many people perceive your example as a metaphor, the results of the labor being compared with the fruits of a tree, but in reality the direction of the metaphor has historically been opposite, the fruits of the tree being called thus because they were considered the useful results of its cultivation.