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Because one implies "Sprouts from Brussels" and the other implies the vegetable that children stereotypically hate.

leeand00
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1 Answers1

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The veggie is correctly spelled brussels sprouts. I assume spelling it without the "s" is just an error or being unaware of the proper spelling. Wikipedia suggests the vegetable got its name because of its popularity in Brussels, Belgium. So, in a sense, they are "sprouts from Brussels."

moscafj
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    “Brussel sprouts” is an example of [rebracketing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebracketing). – Sneftel Aug 24 '22 at 18:54
  • And (certainly in British English) the two versions are pronounced identically so it's a very natural change. Degemination across a word boundary, like the term *prime minister*: https://improveyouraccent.co.uk/double-consonants-in-english-geminates/ – dbmag9 Aug 25 '22 at 09:18
  • @moscafj Thank you for your answer sir! I was working on a menu and it was driving me crazy, so I had to ask. – leeand00 Aug 25 '22 at 15:59
  • The Dutch spelling of the Belgium city is Brussel, without the S at the end, so maybe someone used that instead of the English spelling. But in the Dutch of the Netherlands the vegetable does not have the name of the city in its name. – Willeke Aug 27 '22 at 18:13
  • What do Dutch people call brussels sprouts? – FuzzyChef Aug 29 '22 at 19:04
  • @FuzzyChef Going by the Wikipedia entry, it's *spruitkool* which I think breaks down as 'sprout cabbage': https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruitkool – dbmag9 Aug 30 '22 at 20:51