Talk:Fig

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Fig which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 12:19, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

64% or 62%?

various percentages regarding largest producers; also various tonnages; where to find annual world wide raw data? link to 'world cartel' of producers?

Howard from NYC (talk) 15:33, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Ornamental plant

@Sbishop: I still can't see a significant claim of ornamental use in #Modern section. Even if there is some ornamental use (yeah, it's evergreen and is kind of nice plant to have in your backyard; but I haven't seen it sold in decorative plant nurseries like several of its Ficus relatives), I think it's quite marginal compared to its economic importance as foodstuff. Therefore, it's undue to mention in the lead paragraph per MOS:LEADREL, and I'm still inclined to remove it as a minor aspect. Do you agree? No such user (talk) No such user (talk) 12:48, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

I don't mind this aspect being removed the lead, I agree it isn't a significant use for the plant compared with its culinary one. Sbishop (talk) 13:50, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Fig/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Chiswick Chap (talk · contribs) 11:28, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: A.Cython (talk · contribs) 02:44, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

I will review this, I will need a week to provide comments. A.Cython(talk) 02:44, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Many thanks for taking this on. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:52, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Apologies for my a bit late review, I tend to give comments sooner than six days, but I got busy with other things.

I enjoyed reading about one of my favorite fruits and probably the favorite of many. Overall, the article is well written, sourced, and presented. There are some minor and easily fixable issues. I also provide a couple optional opportunities to broaden the scope.

Thank you for the kind words and the careful review. I've actioned all the comments to date. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:29, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

Various

• No edit wars
• Neutral
• No copyright violations, Earwig's Copyvio Detector flags the list of "Synonymy"
• Focused
• Broad enough, though I felt that some aspects were missing given that they frequently appear in books (see Optional Material). I leave this to the digression of the nominator as I might be biased.

Noted, thanks.

Figures

All figures look good with justification (see below for one of them) and their suitable captions.

• Please update the licence in Ficus carica L, 1771.jpg to address the flagged message You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.

Done.

Prose

Overall is very good (I made some minor c/e), but please merge single sentence paragraphs with nearby paragraphs or consider expanding them. I think saw three cases.

Thank you. Done.

Sources

Spot check: 8, 16, 20, 58, 66, 68

• Ref 31: Ice crystal appears in page 47 not in 39. I also did not see the "Brown Turkey"
  • Fixed.

• Perhaps grouping refs 16,17,18 as a note explaining the two of them are a comment and a reply to the original study
  • Done.

• Ref 21: both author-link and title-link point to the same WP article, I think it is better to have the title-link to point to the book title in Google Books or publisher's relevant page.
  • Done.

• Ref 57: both the original and the archived versions point to a "Page not found", please update this.
  • Fixed.

Optional material

1. IMO, the etymology perhaps needs to be expanded. My understanding is that the root of the Latin word might be related to the Greek word σύκον or that both are related to an older word, possibly of old Armenian origin (tʿuz).
   • Fig etymology (also achived version, it was working a couple of days ago)
     • wiktionary:fig
     • wiktionary:σῦκον#Ancient_Greek
   • Carl Darling Buck, A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages (1949) p. 378
   • See also Sycophancy#Etymology it has some potential relevant material, e.g., cultivation, cultural significance, etc.

Added.

1. Solon's law of prohibiting the export of figs is mentioned in several books as it played a important role in the economic development of Ancient Athens, also related to the origin of the word 'sykophantes'. It also it has good material on how the figs were viewed in Ancient Greece.
   • Figs, a global history By David C. Sutton, Reaktion Books 2014
     • epub page 42 It appears that in earliest times figs may have been an exclusive food in mainland Greece, a food for the rich and for religious use, but that in later centuries they were more easily available and hence became a staple food of the poor. Plutarch believed the tradition that Solon forbade the export of figs, sometime around 590 BC, and that the law was vigorously enforced. Those who tried to smuggle figs out of Attica were liable to be reported to the authorities by 'those who reveal figs' (sykophantes), a fascinating etymology for 'sycophancy'. (added emphasis)
       • Solon ordered olive and fig trees to be planted for the Athenian economic recovery see here p.17.
     • epub page 43 Several writers emphasize that although the Greeks defined themselves principally by the olive, the gift of Athena, they sometimes defined themselves also by the fig. References can be found contrasting the civilized fig-eating Greeks with the barbarous Medes 'who know neither wine nor figs'. In Book III of The Deipnosophists (third century AD), among many pages on the glories of Greek figs, Athenaeus quotes Herodotus as believing that the fig is the most useful to man of all the fruits which grow on trees. He also quotes a certain Magnus as saying,: the fig tree, my friends, is the guide to men to lead them to a more civilized life, and the comic writer Antiphanes writing that Attica was superior to all other lands in honey, bread and figs. Figs are portrayed here as a yardstick and a symbol of the highest levels of civilization.
       Athenaeus' book is packed full of figgy anecdotes and quotation after quotation, often from authors now lost. He cites the story of Anchimolus and Moschus, as told by Hegesander: they were sophists living in Elis, and all their adult lives they drank only water and ate only figs; they were as healthy and vigorous as any other men, but their sweat smelt so offensive that everyone avoided them at the public baths. He believed that figs were especially good for children, and quotes Herodotus once again, making the intriguing suggestion that children fed on fig juice would grow to a great size. He also believed that figs were the most digestible of all fruit, which was proved by the fact that Greeks would eat far more figs than all other fruit put together. Then he gives us a Greek proverb in a format that appears in the food proverbs of many cultures: Figs after fish, vegetables after meat. (added emphasis)

Added.

Final comments

Thank you for making the changes and even adding additional material. Congratulations to Chiswick Chap for bringing this article about a tasty fruit to GA status. Well done! A.Cython(talk) 22:30, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.