Punnet
[PUN-ət]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: English, 19th century
1.
A small light basket or other container for fruit or vegetables.
Examples of Punnet in a sentence
"We bought three punnets of berries from a roadside stand."
"After the plums are picked and washed, they will be packed into punnets to be sold."
About Punnet
Though “punnet” is a purely English word, its roots are uncertain. Some believe it’s a play on the dialect word “pun” meaning “a pound,” while others believe the inventor of the basket was named Punnet.
Did you Know?
In the late 18th century, punnets were conical and manufactured out of wood chips and strips of soaked wood. Punnets in both the U.S. and U.K. became rectangular toward the late 1800s, and the range of materials grew to include pulp and fiberboard. By the 1970s, punnets were being manufactured mechanically out of poplar. Today, many punnets in the grocery store are made out of perforated plastic with lids that snap closed.
