So i'm kinda confused right now. This will probably only apply to those in the UK but anyone else feel free to chip in Basically i'm not out at all at work, at least i've never told anyone i'm gay. The thing is, several people have referred to me as 'my old fruit'. Whether thats 'How ya doing me ol' fruit?!' or anything similar to that, it has never been anything overtly offensive. When i was first called it i kinda shrugged it off as abit of an odd saying one person had, but now several people have said it i'm starting to question how obvious i really am. Is 'me old fruit' a saying i've never heard of before? or is it that i'm inadvertently out at work and i just dont know it haha. Either scenario is odd because i havent specifically said "i'm gay" (but never said i'm straight either) and i've always thought that calling someone a fruit was supposed to be offensive :/ Any ideas?
Hi CTJ I wouldnt read to much into it. My grandma,born and bred in leicester used to greet any of us four grandchildren in exactly the same way,when we learned to walk she would bend down to us and hug us as we ran to her,always saying we were her lovely little fruit cake.Im quite sure she meant no offence and had no clue of our sexuality at such a young age. She would also refer to us as "my old fruit",such as saying "come on my old fruit,lets see what sweets we can find"
I have a guy at work who calls everyone "cock". "How you doing my cock" "Thanks cock" I don't they mean anything by it. Especially is they say it with a "me ol'" attached to it. That's just local slang.
There used to be a TV comedy series in the UK called 'goodness,Gracious me' and some people in there called each other ' my old fruity cake'... Never come across it as an insult ,gay or straight.. So don't worry about it
I wouldn`t take it as an insult, unless they are people you don`t know, who show with body-language that they are actually trying to insult you. People say the strangest things. Sometimes we don`t hear them right, sometimes we do, but misunderstand either the intention behind it or what it actually means to them. I had one person be so insulted with me once, because I called him the norwegian word for "Dear friend". I didn`t get why he got so insulted, until he told me what he heard. Apparently he kept mishearing me, thinking I called him the norwegian word for "gay guy" (the insulting version of that word). And he had gone and been irritated about that for a while, never actually hearing what I said Maybe this usage of the word fruit is a friendly term? I don`t know, but unless he/she means it offensively, I`d just try to get used to it
Probably not what you want to hear but ... I think it’s a northern UK, possibly Manchester, term for gay. I recall one of the gay characters, Mickey I think, in the UK TV series Shameless being called a Fruit. A quick check in an online “Urban Dictionary” defines Fruit as someone who is a flaming flamboyant homosexual. May be derived from "The Forbidden Fruit" Sale Gay Guy