Punnet

Empty punnets

A punnet pronounced is a small box for the gathering and sale of fruit and vegetables, typically small berries. The word is largely confined to Commonwealth countries and is of uncertain origin, but is thought to be a diminutive of "pun", a British dialect word for pound, from the days in which such containers were used as a unit of measurement. The British Dictionary of National Biography, parenthetically in its entry for geneticist R.C. Punnett (1875–1967), credits "a strawberry growing ancestor [who] devised the wooden basket known as a ‘punnet’".[1]

Description

Punnets were originally a round woodchip basket but typically are now rectangular and made of plastic; increasingly moulded pulp and corrugated fiberboard are being used as they are perceived to be more sustainable materials. Decorative punnets are often made of felt and seen in flower and craft arrangements.

References

  1. "Search Results - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.