Tomato-vegetable or fruit

To make my writing a little easier and perhaps a bit more accurate let me begin this post with a quote from Tomatoland ,by Barry Estabrook, 2011.
 "Of all the species that played a part in the great Columbian Exchange-the widespread mingling of plants, animals, and disease organisms between the Eastern and Western hemishperes following the establishment of Spanish colonies in the New World- the tomato surely would have topped the list as the least likely to succeed, never mind to becomes one of our favorite vegetables. Botanists think that the modern tomato's immediate predecessor is a species called S. pimpinellifolium that still grow wild in the coastal deserts and Andean foothills of Ecuador and northern Peru. Inauspicious and easily overlooked, S. pimpinellifolium fruits are the size of large garden peas. They are red when ripe and taste like tomatoes, but picking a handful of the diminutive fruits as a snack would take several minutes. Gathering enough for a salad or salsa wouldn't be worth anybody's effort." p.3
Over time this little tomato mutated into what looked like and tasted like our modern day cherry tomato. This early cultivated tomato was of the variety S. cerasiforme which is now considered a subspecies of
S. lycopersicum - the scientific name for the tomato we eat today!
Moving along it was Hernan Cortes who brought the tomato to Europe in the early 1500's. In 1692 the tomato made its first appearance in an Italian cookbook. The French coined the term "love apple" . In the United States the colonists called the "love apple" tomate, the Mexican name for the tomato.
The journey of the tomato is very fascinating. I highly recommend the above mentioned book, Tomatoland, to any one who would like to follow the tomato's history a little closer than what I have presented here. As to the question, is it fruit or vegetable the US congress of 1883 determined it was/is vegetable in order to protect American farmers from imports from the Caribbean growers of fresh winter tomatoes. In my research one could defend the tomato as fruit and/or vegetable! Its your call. For me I will refer to it as vegetable as I grow it in my vegetable garden.
The journey continues!