« A tribute to Veerasami | Main | Swinging »
February 19, 2007
Names - where from?
Since English as a language was introduced to India by the British, I assumed that the names by which fruits and vegetables are referred to in India, have also originated from England. However, surprisingly, many of the English names we use in India for some of the most common items in any grocery store are not used in England. In fact people draw a blank when those words are spoken in any conversation.
I wonder where these words have originated from!- Perhaps they’ve originated, from some of the Indian languages! However, when you search for the origin of these names used in India, there is no evident proof of origin!
Our own ‘lady’s finger’ is called ‘Okra’ which has a “West African origin and is cognate with "ókùrù" in Igbo, a language spoken in what is now known as Nigeria” - courtesy Wikipedia; but ‘lady’s finger’ does not have any origin.
‘Brinjal’ is called ‘aubergine’ in UK and ‘eggplant’ in US. Again, the orgin of both ‘aubergine’ and ‘eggplant’ are traceable, but ‘Brinjal’ does not have one. "Eggplant developed from the fact that the fruits of some 18th-century European cultivars were yellow or white and resembled goose or hen's eggs. Aubergine is the British name given to this fruit, from the French aubergine, derived from Catalan albergínia"- courtesy Wikipedia
A few other examples of names with unknown origins are ’Curds’ (never used in England, but commonly used in India. While ‘yogurt’ is used in both places), ‘Capsicum’ (used in India to refer to a vegetable) and ‘peppers’ (Used in England to refer to the same vegetable which the Indians call ‘Capsicum’. Interestingly ‘Pepper’ is used to refer to a certain member of the spices family in India.) .
Posted by Vasanth at February 19, 2007 03:53 PM
Comments
Karthy - Explore ella da, I faced this in the vegetable shops..
Posted by: Vasanth at February 26, 2007 09:05 PM
Hmm naraya explore panarai da nee. Yaa its pretty strange yenakum theriyalai.
Posted by: karthy at February 26, 2007 02:00 PM
Chakra - same here..
Posted by: Vasanth at February 21, 2007 03:57 PM
Okra was the blooper... I mentioned it as 'Ladies Finger' during my early days in UK and had the shopkeeper look at me strangely. :)
Posted by: Chakra at February 19, 2007 05:06 PM