diff --git a/doc/fixes35.0 b/doc/fixes35.0
index c910f95ea..2c6b4fd92 100644
--- a/doc/fixes35.0
+++ b/doc/fixes35.0
@@ -94,8 +94,7 @@ mind flayer brain eating is subject to certain fatal targets and to cannibalism
 mind flayer can't eat brains of ghost or shade
 corpses of unique monsters in bones behaved incorrectly if revived or eaten
 fix pluralization for "this tin smells like mother-in-laws" when hallucinating
-try harder to keep pluralization straight when user assigns an already plural
-	value for named fruit
+force user-specified fruit name to be singular
 avoid false matches when looking up fruit names ("grapefruit" isn't "grape")
 handle pluralization of man-at-arms and singularization of men-at-arms
 assigning an artifact name is rejected on objects with similar description to
diff --git a/src/options.c b/src/options.c
index 94e872846..7371a8ecd 100644
--- a/src/options.c
+++ b/src/options.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*	SCCS Id: @(#)options.c	3.5	2008/07/20	*/
+/*	SCCS Id: @(#)options.c	3.5	2008/08/22	*/
 /* Copyright (c) Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, 1985. */
 /* NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. */
 
@@ -1629,8 +1629,10 @@ goodfruit:
 	/* OBJ_NAME(objects[SLIME_MOLD]) won't work after initialization */
 		if (!*pl_fruit)
 		    nmcpy(pl_fruit, "slime mold", PL_FSIZ);
-		if (!initial)
+		if (!initial) {
 		    (void)fruitadd(pl_fruit);
+		    pline("Fruit is now \"%s\".", pl_fruit);
+		}
 		/* If initial, then initoptions is allowed to do it instead
 		 * of here (initoptions always has to do it even if there's
 		 * no fruit option at all.  Also, we don't want people
@@ -1638,6 +1640,7 @@ goodfruit:
 		 */
 		return;
 	}
+
 	fullname = "warnings";
 	if (match_optname(opts, fullname, 5, TRUE)) {
 		if (duplicate) complain_about_duplicate(opts,1);
@@ -4052,10 +4055,16 @@ char *str;
 	 * a bones level...
 	 */
 
-	/* Note: every fruit has an id (spe for fruit objects) of at least
-	 * 1; 0 is an error.
+	/* Note: every fruit has an id (kept in obj->spe) of at least 1;
+	 * 0 is an error.
 	 */
 	if (user_specified) {
+		/* force fruit to be singular; this handling is not
+		   needed--or wanted--for fruits from bones because
+		   they already received it in their original game */
+		nmcpy(pl_fruit, makesingular(str), PL_FSIZ);
+	     /* assert( str == pl_fruit ); */
+
 		/* disallow naming after other foods (since it'd be impossible
 		 * to tell the difference)
 		 */