Where did peanuts get their name?

Answer 1

Two possibilities here:

1. The peanut, the legume from which peanut butter is made, was given the name "peanut" in America circa 1790, as it is a legume (similar to a pea) that resembles a nut.
2. Peanuts, the comic strip formerly known as L'il Folks, developed by Chrles Schultz was so named in 1950 when Charles Schultz syndicated the strip for publication daily in US national newpapers by United Features Syndicate. United Features renamed Schultz's Li'l Folk because it was too similar to two other existing comic strips that were running at the time it debuted.

Answer 2

Peanuts probably originated in what is now Peru or Brazil in South America. People in South America made pottery in the shape of peanuts or decorated jars with peanuts as far back as 3,500 years ago. As early as 1500 BC, the Incas of Peru used peanuts as sacrificial offerings and entombed them with their mummies to aid in the spirit life. Incas were also likely the first to grind peanuts to make peanut butter. People in central Brazil also ground peanuts with maize to make a drink.

European explorers first encountered peanuts in Brazil. Peanuts were grown as far north as Mexico when the Spanish explorers arrived in the Americas. The explorers took peanuts back to Spain.

From Spain, traders spread peanuts to Asia and Africa. Africans introduced peanuts to North America beginning in the 18th century.

Around 1800, American farmers first grew peanuts commercially in South Carolina. By 1818, they were growing in North Carolina. By the mid-1840s, they had reached Virginia. At the time, peanuts were were used mainly for oil, and as food for farm animals and the poor. They were considered difficult to grow and harvest. During this time, peanuts were still harvested by hand, leaving stems and debris in the peanuts. The poor quality and lack of uniformity kept down the demand, but peanut production steadily grew in the first half of the 19th century. During the Civil War, both armies subsisted on peanuts. Returning Union soldiers, who had developed a taste for peanuts, introduced them to the populated northern states after the war. Vendors began selling hot roasted peanuts from street carts and at baseball games and other events.

In 1892, boll weevils devastated cotton crops in the American South. Dr. George Washington Carver, who then chaired the agriculture department at Tuskeegee Institute, encouraged cotton farmers to rotate their crops in a three-year plan. Legumes like peanuts and soybeans would replenish the soil with nitrogen and minerals for two seasons, so that cotton could grow in the third year. This crop rotation produced a far better cotton crop than the farmers had seen for many years.

A St. Louis physician, Dr. Ambrose W. Straub, crushed peanuts into a paste for his geriatric patients with bad teeth. At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, known as the World's Columbian Exposition, peanut butter gained exposure and popularity. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented a "Process of Preparing Nut Meal" in 1895 and used peanuts. Kellogg served the patients at his Battle Creek Sanitarium peanut butter. Joseph Lambert worked for Dr. Kellogg and began selling his own hand-operated peanut butter grinder in 1896.

Around 1900, labor-saving equipment was invented for planting, cultivating, harvesting and picking peanuts from the plants, as well as for shelling and cleaning the kernels. With these machines, demand for peanuts grew rapidly, especially for oil, roasted and salted nuts, peanut butter, and candy. In the early 20th century, peanuts became a significant agricultural crop in the American South. Following the suggestions of Dr. Carver, peanuts served as an effective commercial crop and, for a time, rivaled the position of cotton in the South.

Peanuts became an integral part of the Armed Forces rations in World War I, along with Welch's grape jam. Dr. Carver devised over 100 products using peanuts, including dyes, plastics, and gasoline. In 1920, he delivered a speech before the Peanut Growers Association, attesting to the wide potential of peanuts. The following year, he testified before Congress in support of a tariff on imported peanuts. With the help of Carver's testimony, the proponents of the tariff were able to institute it in 1922.

Bagged, pre-sliced bread was created in 1928. During World War II, inexpensive but nutritious peanuts were ground into a smooth, buttery consistency, canned, and put into soldier's rations. Somewhere, a soldier spread his peanut butter on sliced bread and added the grape jam, creating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.