Aubergine to the Brits is the famous Eggplant of the Americans and Brinjal of the (Anglo) Indians. The origin of the name Aubergine tells us a story if it’s cultivation and it’s wild travels across the world starting from Central Africa. But as usual many linguists like to find roots for their words in Sanskrit even when it’s as comical as it sounds in the case of Aubergine. I posit that the Sanskrit word itself is a borrowing from a native Indian word, possibly Dravidian and the Persian and/or Arabic words for it were also directly derived from Dravidian names probably Kannada or Tulu.

The primary reason is the incoming Indo-Aryans were pastoral nomads, with a smattering of cultivation habits. They borrowed words for most of farming, local foods, flora and fauna from pre existing Indic languages. Nevertheless, most dictionaries and etymologists take it back to Sanskrit vatigagama with a comical meaning of fruit that cures the air. Not even such a comical meaning would prevent etymologists from finding it credible enough to print it in dictionaries and etymological books. This despite the fact the earliest evidence of curry of Aubergine, Ginger and Turmeric was found at a Harrapan site dated to 4000 BP.[1]

The route of spread of Aubergine, it reached South Asia in antiquity where it acquired its Dravidian names, which became the source of names in Indo-European and Semitic languages. Source[2]

Following is the route of word loaning until it reached the British isles.

Aubergine (British) <-Aubergine (French) <- Alberginera (Catalan) <- Al Badinjan (Arabic) <- Batenjan (Persian)

This is where it gets interesting many European etymologists would make a leap of linguistic faith and say the Persian form is derived form Sanskrit vatigagama. [3]Some do take it sensibly to middle Indo-Aryan *vātiñjana, vātingana[4]

The native name for Eggplant in Kannada is ಬದನೆ ಕಾಯಿ (badane kāyi) where kāyi means raw fruit. In Tulu another western coastal language in touch with Persian and Arab traders it is badanae. It is a straightforward borrowing from badanae or badane kāyi into Batenjan in Persian rather than a convoluted vatigagama into Batenjan.

Distantly related is another Dravidian term in Telugu in which it is vaṅkāya or vaṅkā mokka, in Gondi it is vank. La parola Proto-dravidico 'melanzana' è ricostruita da Krishnamurti come *vaẓ-Vt- (*ẓ = continuante retroflesso senza frizione) che è probabilmente la radice di parole sanscrite e o indo-ariane medie.

Diversi tipi di melanzane, tutte coltivate ma quelle incolte sono spinose, molto piccole e sono nate nell'Africa centrale.

Io suggerisco

Aubergine (inglese) <-Aubergine (francese) <- Alberginera (catalano) <- Al Badinjan (arabo) <-Batenjan (persiano) <-badanae o Badane kāyi (Tulu o Kannada)

Di seguito una mappa dei nomi di Aubergine/Eggplant in varie lingue europee.

The most interesting website about the etymology of Eggplant/Aubergine/Brinjal is written by Richard Alexander Johnson

EDIT: I’ve done a series of similar articles, where I believe etymologists and dictionaries jump to hasty conclusions without serious linguistic research and giving alternative possibilities a platform. More to come.[5] [6]

Footnotes