|
|
| November 18, 2002 Tea anyone?  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! Do you have an interesting question to suggest for this page? Email us Response to previous quiz questions >>> HERE 
|
|
|
|
Web design by Bcubed
Internet server Global Publishing Group