Learn English – the origin of “kiwifruit”

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What is the origin of kiwifruit?
Is there any relation between the fruit and New Zealand?

kiwifruit

Best Answer

It was a marketing name for exports from New Zealand to the USA in the 1950s, according to Wikipedia, having previously been known as a Chinese gooseberry and then briefly melonette.

I think there was slightly more than that, in that the USA had an import tax on real gooseberries and on real melons, so the new name was designed to allow duty-free trade.