Please note that Aubergine & Spa is closed.
- noun: Egg-shaped vegetable having a shiny skin typically dark purple but occasionally white or yellow
- noun: Hairy upright herb native to southeastern Asia but widely cultivated for its large glossy edible fruit commonly used as a vegetable
- etymology: from French, from Catalan albergínia, from Arabic al-bAdhinjAn - the eggplant
- date: 1794
- note: One of the most extraordinary example of words shifting names, must go to the
aubergine, once known as the brinjal in India. The story starts with
Sanskrit vatin-gana "the plant that cures the wind", which became the Arabic
al-badinjan. This moved into Europe, via Moorish Spain: one
offshoot keeping the Arabic article prefix, to became alberengena in Spanish
and aubergine in French; another transformation became the botanical
Latin melongena through losing the article and changing the "b" to an "m";
this then turned into the Italian melanzana and then to mela insana (the
"mad apple"). Another branch, again without the "al", became bringella in
Portugal, whose traders took the plant, and their version of the name, full
circle back to India, where it became brinjal in Anglo-Indian circles (the
usual term among English speakers in India today is the Hindi baingan, or
aubergine). In another branch of its history, the Portuguese word turned up
in the West Indies, where it was again, but differently, corrupted to
brown-jolly. All names for the same plant.
- pronunciation: 'O-b&r-"zhEn
- noun: An hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers