Why is a pineapple so named?

Today I led a Confirmation retreat for the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders of St. Aloysius school in Springfield.  It was a good day and the students were great to work with; evenso, it was an exhausting day.

When I returned to the Cathedral I was mentally exhausted but not phsyically, so I decided to take a walk to pick up a pineapple.  When I arrived at the grocery store I was disappointed to find the store out of pineapples.  I picked up instead a few apples and bananas and made my way back to the Cathedral.

My Facebook post about my disappoint led The Anchoress to express her dislike of fruit - and especially of strawberries and pineapple (with which I naturally disagree).  After I mentioned the pleasure of any day involving pineapple - and especially those days that also involve Dr Pepper, chocolate, or Nutella with pineapple - she said:

I don't understand you people. Pineapple is neither a pine nor an apple, and it burns the tongue. Nutella, however, is pure gift!

While I heartily agree with her second point, I've never known pineapple to burn my turn.

It seems to me that her complaint regarding the curious name of this most delicious of fruits deserves an explanation.  The pineapple, you may be surprised to know, is not native to Hawai'i, for which it is called in Hawaiian halakahiki, "foreign fruit."

The folks at the Dole Plantation, tell us the was called pineapple received its English name because on the outside the fruit resembles a pine cone.