[Sca-cooks] Re: plums in plum pudding

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Susan Fox-Davis:
>On 12/23/03 7:38 PM, "Devra at aol.com" <Devra at aol.com> wrote:
>>  Devra sez:
>>        I think, in this case, that the word 'plum' refers to a choice morsel
>>  or delicacy, not to the dried fruit.  Think of 'it's a plum job' or Little
>>  Jack Horner, who pulled out the plum from the Christmas pie.
>
>Evidently, a "plum" is a much more salable word that "prune,"
>As evinced in the widespread use of "dried plum" instead.
>Despite Stan Freberg's best commercial efforts.
>"Today the pits:  tomorrow the wrinkles!

Makes sense, but I wonder at what point "prune" came to mean "dried 
plum", when it used to mean, to English-speakers, a variety of plum 
that frequently comes to us imported in dried form.

For that matter, is not the same true of raisins?

Adamantius