November 18, 2002
Tea anyone?
![](http://iranian.com/Quiz/2002/November/Images/tea.jpg)
Etymology of items used in making tea:
A word like Shekar would be entered as coming from Sanskrit whereas its original
roots are from a proto-Indo-European language that is the parent of Sanskrit, Greek,
Latin, German, etc. In that language the word may only have had a superficial phonetic
resemblance to the word Shekar
in modern Persian.
As for the word as it appears in Persian, it does come from Latin as they were the
first to properly purify sugar and market it as a substance (Sucre). All other languages
(Indo-European or therwise) have taken the word from this source (an example of
such cross adoption is the use of the word Sekkar in Arabic).
In my quiz, I asked about the etymology of the word in the sense of what language
WE have taken the word from not what the ORIGINAL root might be. In either case Sanskrit
is not the right answer for Shekkar.
Ghand: is certainly Semitic (we got it from Arabic although it also appears
in other Semitic langauges), hence words such as Ghannaad, Moghannad, etc. These
words existed in Arabic before the Islamic era indicating that its root is not Indo-European
and having entered the Arabic language after their invasion of Asia proper.
Ghoori is Mongolian. The Chinese got it from them at the same time as we did.
Again Dehkhoda often confuses Mongolian/Turkic roots and Chinese. Remember, the Chinese
where as exposed to the Mongols as we have been.
Ketri (Ketli) comes from Kettle, Most likely adoption is from English. My
Sanskrit/Hindi etymological sources do not identify this word as having anything
to do with water and carrying/heating of same.
Ghashogh...Turkish. He is somewhat right. Ghashogh again is Mongolian which
is a Turkic language. Modern Turkish is of the same root. However the word Ghashogh
was adopted directly from the Mongols 800 years ago and not in more recent times
through modern Turkish.
Samavar and Estekan are both Russian.
Na'lbeki is Syriaic. It has entered and established itself in Russian through
Byzantine influence, the same way the Russians ended up with the Cyrillic alphabet.
Now I am not certain whether we adopted the word directly from Syriaic or from Russian.
Houman Younessi
Quiz winner: Sourena Mohammadi. Sad
Afarin!
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