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Although this citrus fruit has a major hand in some of the world's most delicious foods, why, one asks, is the lemon associated with lemon laws - American laws relating to predominantly faulty vehicles?

One expert guess is that both, lemons and problematic vehicles, leave a sour taste in the mouth, in one case literally.

In the early 19th century, the term lemon symbolized an unfriendly person - a sour puss. Consequently, a lemon came to describe anything that was faulty or had a defect. This association can be retraced to 1909 when American slang gave it the connotation of a person who can be taken for a ride. British slang also used "to hand someone a lemon" to refer to cheating someone by passing off a low quality product as a good one.

The Ford Edsel, introduced in 1957, also came to be called a lemon due to its failure to keep customers happy. Another reason for this was the horsecollar grill that the car was identified with. Customers believed that the grill made the car look like a Mercedes-Benz sucking on a lemon.

The word may have originated anywhere, however, the lemon is now legally related to faulty or defective vehicles (and in some US states - anything mechanical).

A general rule for identifying a lemon is that it should have been given for the same repairs at least four times or should not function for a total of thirty days out of the period of coverage. Often this period is one year from the delivery of the vehicle or the term of the written warranty, whichever is shorter.

The US federal law governing lemons is officially called The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, however, most American states each have their own lemon law.


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