We've been talking about arachibutyrophobia, meaning something along the lines of 'fear of peanut butter'.

But I seem to recall that the peanut isn't a nut; it's a legume.

What's the difference?

I am not sure, but from this discussion I thought peanut butter came from a peanut.

I'm recalling my information from watching QI, a humourous quiz that takes pedantry to new heights and this question came up on there. As I recall they too said that peanuts are not, botanically speaking, technically a nut at all. I think they said they are a legume but I'm not certain of that bit.

Kalleh - a common project in elementary schools around here is to make peanut butter. The put a mess of shelled peanuts in a blender and, well, puree them. Then they add salt until it tastes right.

My own son, however, doesn't like PB because he basically doesn't like nuts of any kind. I'm not sure why. I love nuts!

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But I seem to recall that the peanut isn't a nut; it's a legume.

Quite right. Hence the name "groundnut". See Wikipedia.

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I love nuts!

Why am I not surprised?

Botanically speaking, a nut is a hard, dry, indehiscent fruit containing a single seed, often wholly or partly enclosed by a husk, or involucre. A legume is a soft-shelled, dry, dehiscent (usually), fruit containg two or more seeds, not enclosed in a involucre.

It's not as simple as it seems, though. Not everything called a nut is a true nut, botanically. Here are Wayne's Word articles, Fruits Called Nuts, Fruit Terminology, The Peanut: A Subterranean Legume, and The Fabulous Nickernuts. Wikipedia also has an article about nuts.

Tinman

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