Editing Eggplant (section)

==Etymology and regional names==
[[File:Eggplant with chicken eggs.jpg|right|thumb|200px|White eggplant compared to two chicken eggs]]

The plant and fruit have a profusion of English names.

===''Eggplant''-type names===

The name ''eggplant'' is usual in [[North American English]] and [[Australian English]]. First recorded in 1763, the word "eggplant" was originally applied to white cultivars, which look very much like hen's eggs (see image).<ref name="oed">{{cite web|title=Eggplant|url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=eggplant|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper|access-date=8 December 2017|date=2017}}</ref><ref name="www">{{cite web|title=Eggplant|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-egg1.htm|publisher=World Wide Worlds|access-date=8 December 2017|date=20 October 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171209203908/http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-egg1.htm|archive-date=9 December 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"'[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/59900 egg-plant], n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, July 2018. Accessed 23 September 2018.</ref> Similar names are widespread in other languages, such as the [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] term ''eggaldin'' or the [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''planhigyn ŵy''.

The white, egg-shaped varieties of the eggplant's fruits are also known as ''garden eggs'',<ref>'[https://www.nap.edu/read/11763/chapter/9 Eggplant (Garden Egg)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923200826/https://www.nap.edu/read/11763/chapter/9 |date=2018-09-23 }}', in National Research Council of the National Academies, ''[https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11763/lost-crops-of-africa-volume-ii-vegetables Lost Crops of Africa, Volume II: Vegetables] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923200828/https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11763/lost-crops-of-africa-volume-ii-vegetables |date=2018-09-23 }}'' (Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2006), pp. 136–53. {{ISBN|978-0-309-66582-7}}, {{doi|10.17226/11763}}.</ref> a term first attested in 1811.<ref>'Garden egg', in "[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/76724 garden, n.]" ''OED'', 3rd edn (2017).</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' records that between 1797 and 1888, the name ''vegetable egg'' was also used.<ref>'[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/299990 Vegetable egg, n.', ''OED'', 3rd edn (2012).]</ref>

===''Aubergine''-type names===
Whereas ''eggplant'' was coined in English, most of the diverse other European names for the plant derive from the {{langx|ar|باذنجان}} ''bāḏinjān'' {{IPA|ar|bæːðɪnˈd͡ʒæːn|}} {{pronunciation|Q7540-ar.ogg|listen|help=no}}.<ref name="oed-brinjal">''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd edition, 2001, ''s.v.'' '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/116252 melongena, n.]'; 2000, ''s.v.'' '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/116253 melongene, n.]"; and 2000, ''s.v.'' '[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/112011 mad-apple, n.]'. These partly supersede the etymology in ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 1st edition, 1888, ''s.v.'' '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/23394 brinjal]'. This in turn supersedes the 1885 OED etymology ''s.v.'' '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/12985 aubergine]'.</ref> ''Bāḏinjān'' is itself a loan-word in Arabic, whose earliest traceable origins lie in the [[Dravidian languages]]. The ''[[Hobson-Jobson]]'' dictionary comments that "probably there is no word of the kind which has undergone such extraordinary variety of modifications, whilst retaining the same meaning, as this".<ref name="hj">Henry Yule, A.C. Burnell, ''Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary'', 1886, reprint {{ISBN|185326363X}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rcjmiBm8hHQC&pg=PA115 p. 115], ''s.v.'' 'brinjaul'</ref>

In English usage, modern names deriving from Arabic ''bāḏinjān'' include:
* ''Aubergine'', usual in [[British English]] (as well as [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]]).
* ''Brinjal'' or ''brinjaul'', usual in [[South Asia]] and [[South African English]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/brinjal|title=Brinjal|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=28 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184735/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/brinjal|archive-date=12 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''Solanum melongena'', the [[Linnaean name]].

====From Dravidian to Arabic====
[[File:Muhammad ibn Muhammad Shakir Ruzmah-'i Nathani - An Eggplant, a Plant Called Parsiyavushan, and Dungwort - Walters W659225B - Full Page.jpg|thumb|Illustration of an eggplant (upper picture) in a 1717 manuscript of a work by the thirteenth-century Persian [[Zakariya al-Qazwini]].]]
All the ''aubergine''-type names have the same origin, in the Dravidian languages. Modern descendants of this [[Proto-Dravidian language|ancient Dravidian]] word include [[Malayalam]] ''vaṟutina'' and [[Tamil language|Tamil]] ''vaṟutuṇai''.<ref name="oed-brinjal" />

The Dravidian word was borrowed into the [[Indo-Aryan languages]], giving ancient forms such as [[Sanskrit]] and [[Pali]] ''vātiṅ-gaṇa'' (alongside Sanskrit ''vātigama'') and [[Prakrit]] ''vāiṃaṇa''. According to the entry ''brinjal'' in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the Sanskrit word ''vātin-gāna'' denoted 'the class (that removes) the wind-disorder (windy humour)': that is, ''vātin-gāna'' came to be the name for eggplants because they were thought to cure [[flatulence]]. The modern [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] words descending directly from the Sanskrit name are ''baingan'' and ''began''.<ref name=":0">''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 1st edition, 1888, ''s.v.'' '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/23394 brinjal]'.</ref>

The Indic word ''vātiṅ-gaṇa'' was then borrowed into [[Persian language|Persian]] as ''bādingān''. Persian ''bādingān'' was borrowed in turn into Arabic as ''bāḏinjān'' (or, with the [[definite article]], ''al-bāḏinjān''). From Arabic, the word was borrowed into European languages.<ref name="oed-brinjal" />

====From Arabic into Iberia and beyond====
In [[al-Andalus]], the Arabic word ''(al-)bāḏinjān'' was borrowed into the [[Romance languages]] in forms beginning with ''b''- or, with the definite article included, ''alb''-:<ref name="oed-brinjal" />
* [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|bringella}}, {{lang|pt|bringiela}}, {{lang|pt|beringela}}.<ref name=":0" />
* [[Spanish language|Spanish]] {{lang|es|berenjena}}, {{lang|es|alberenjena}}.

The Spanish word {{lang|es|alberenjena}} was then borrowed into French, giving {{lang|fr|aubergine}} (along with French dialectal forms like {{lang|fr|albergine}}, {{lang|fr|albergaine}}, {{lang|fr|albergame}}, and {{lang|fr|belingèle}}). The French name was then borrowed into British English, appearing there first in the late eighteenth century.<ref name="oed-brinjal" />

Through the [[colonialism|colonial expansion]] of Portugal, the Portuguese form {{lang|pt|bringella}} was borrowed into a variety of other languages:<ref name="oed-brinjal" />
* Indian, Malaysian, Singaporean and South African English ''brinjal'', ''brinjaul'' (first attested in the seventeenth century).
* [[West Indian English]] ''brinjalle'' and (through [[folk-etymology]]) ''brown-jolly''.
* French ''bringelle'' in La Réunion.

Thus although Indian English ''brinjal'' ultimately originates in languages of the Indian Subcontinent, it actually came into Indian English via Portuguese.

====From Arabic into Greek and beyond====
[[File:MS 626, folio CLXXV Wellcome L0075018.jpg|thumb|Illustrations of an eggplant from a possibly fifteenth-century French manuscript of a work by [[Matthaeus Platearius]]. The word ''melonge'', below the illustration, has a blue initial ''M''-.]]
The Arabic word ''bāḏinjān'' was borrowed into [[Greek language|Greek]] by the eleventh century CE. The Greek loans took a variety of forms, but crucially they began with ''m-'', partly because Greek lacked the initial ''b-'' sound and partly through [[folk-etymology|folk-etymological]] association with the Greek word ''μέλας'' (''melas''), 'black'. Attested Greek forms include ''ματιζάνιον'' (''matizanion'', eleventh-century), ''μελιντζάνα'' (''melintzana'', fourteenth-century), and ''μελιντζάνιον'' (''melintzanion'', seventeenth-century).<ref name="oed-brinjal" />

From Greek, the word was borrowed into [[Italian language|Italian]] and medieval [[Latin]], and onwards into French. Early forms include:<ref name="oed-brinjal" />
* ''Melanzāna'', recorded in [[Sicilian language|Sicilian]] in the twelfth century.
* ''Melongena'', recorded in Latin in the thirteenth century.
* ''Melongiana'', recorded in Veronese in the fourteenth century.
* ''Melanjan'', recorded in [[Old French]].

From these forms came the botanical Latin ''melongēna''. This was used by [[Joseph Pitton de Tournefort|Tournefort]] as a [[genus]] name in 1700, then by [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] as a [[species]] name in 1753. It remains in scientific use.<ref name="oed-brinjal" />

These forms also gave rise to the [[Caribbean English]] ''melongene''.<ref name="oed-brinjal" />

The Italian ''melanzana'', through [[folk-etymology]], was adapted to ''mela insana'' ('mad apple'): already by the thirteenth century, this name had given rise to a tradition that eggplants could cause insanity. Translated into English as 'mad-apple',<ref name=":1" /> 'rage-apple', or 'raging apple', this name for eggplants is attested from 1578 and the form 'mad-apple' may still be found in [[Southern American English]].<ref name="guineasquash">{{cite web|url=http://www.thecarolinagoldricefoundation.org/news/2016/6/4/guinea-squash|title=Guinea squash|publisher=Carolina Gold Rice Foundation|date=4 April 2011|access-date=9 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110061559/http://www.thecarolinagoldricefoundation.org/news/2016/6/4/guinea-squash|archive-date=10 November 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Other English names===

The plant is also known as ''guinea squash'' in [[Southern American English]]. The term ''guinea'' in the name originally denoted the fact that the fruits were associated with West Africa, specifically the region that is now the modern day country [[Guinea]].<ref name="guineasquash"/>

It has been known as 'Jew's apple',<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> apparently in relation to a belief that the fruit was first imported to the [[West Indies]] by Jewish people.<ref name=":2">"brown-jolly", in "[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/23849 brown, adj.]", "[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/101210 Jews' apple]" in "Jew, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, July 2018. Accessed 23 September 2018.</ref>