Old French "framboise" 'raspberry', from OF "frambeise", from OLF "*brāmbesi" 'blackberry' (cf. Dutch "braambes", "braambezie"; akin to German "Brombeere", English dial. "bramberry") blended with LL "fraga" or OF "fraie" 'strawberry', which explains the replacement > and in turn the final "-se" of "framboise" added to OF "fraie" to make "freise", modern "fraise" (≠ Wallon "frève", Romanian "fragă", Romansh "fraja", Italian "fragola", "fravola" 'strawberry'). Pope (1934) estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources (while the proportion was larger in Old French, because the French language borrowed heavily from Latin and Italian). At the third Council
Fruit Belt Fruit Belt Fruit Belt is a term in the United States for an area where the microclimate provides good conditions for fruit growing. Fruit Belts are prominent around the North American Great Lakes region, notably West Michigan (Fruit Ridge) and western Northern Lower Michigan in tandem, and the southern shore of Lake Erie. The conditions that produce a micro-climate favorable to fruit cultivation are the same that produce lake-effect snow; therefore, Fruit Belts and snowbelts are often concurrent. The map at right shows Great Lakes snowbelts which cover a somewhat larger area than the fruit belt. Notably, there are no