Is a rutabaga a vegetable or fruit?

Hi,

Thank you for your question. The rutabaga is a 'vegetable' as you can
see it being referenced by these sources.

"[ROO-tuh-bay-guh ] This cabbage-family root vegetable resembles a
large (3 to 5 inches in diameter) TURNIP and, in fact, is thought to
be a..."
'All recipes' reference Encyclopedia
http://www.allrecipes.com/encyc/terms/R/8304.asp

"Rutabagas are often thought of as yellow turnips but actually bear
the botanical name Brassica napus and belong to the highly prized
family of cruciferous vegetables. The rutabaga, a relatively newcomer
in the world of vegetables, is thought to have evolved from a cross
between a wild cabbage and a turnip..."
RUTABAGAS--AN UNCOMMON TREAT - On the Highest Perch
http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch4.html

However if you consider the literal meaning you will turn up with
this,
"Rutabaga: fruit of the subterranean darkness"
A reference to this can be seen here,
"The rutabaga, fruit of the subterranean darkness, was a central
fixture of the Samhain. The young guisers carried "jack o'lanterns"
carved from rutabagas (or turnips), a tradition based on the legend of
a blacksmith named Jack who mortgaged his soul to the demons of the
underworld..."
The Rutabaga: The Original Jack O'Lantern 
http://members.tripod.com/~rutabagas/

Additional links of interest:

Questions on: Rutabaga by Ron Smith, Horticulturist, NDSU Extension
Service
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/hortiscope/fruitveg/rtabaga.htm

The Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute
http://members.tripod.com/~rutabagas/

Search strategy:

rutabaga fruit
rutabaga vegetable

Thank you for using this service.

Warmest regards,
Shiv Reddy

This is getting off-question a bit, but I thought someone may be
interested in a little background colour to the Rutabaga story.
Rutabagas featured heavily in my childhood in the North West of
England. Rutabagas are also called swedes in England, but are also
often mistakenly called turnips - that's what I called them as a
child. We also used them to make our halloween lanterns as, in those
days pumpkins only existed in the Peanuts cartoons we saw on
television! Rutabagas are a late development in the vegetable world,
as the answerer writes, a mongrel cross-breed between cabbage and
turnip.