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Re: CHAT: Citrons (was: Danny Wier's PIE (was: Vocab #5))

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 1, 2002, 17:57
Dan Sulani wrote:
> As far as I can tell, the word |etrog| is a borrowing from >Persian , where it is called something like [turundZ]. > BTW: Here in Israel, the term >|pri hadar| ( = beautiful fruit) >is a general term referring not only to the etrog, >(citron), but also to the lemon, orange, grapefruit, >and any other type of citrus fruit. (But only the >etrog is used for the festival of Sukkot.)
Interesting speculation: the common Indonesian word (seemingly only attested in IN and the PI) is *j@ruk ("j"-- palatal affricate) 'citrus in genl., sour'. It _might_ ultimately be a borrowing (via lots of corrupted intermediaries) of the Persian. Though I think at least some varieties of citrus originated in E or SE Asia...?? Well, exactly what IS the "citron"? Citrus varieties known to me are the common everyday orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit/pomelo; kumquat; mandarin (AKA tangerine and clementine??), the seville and blood orange, and something called the calamondin (decorative in Florida, considered inedible-- very sour-- but that mightn't stop some people).

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Lars Henrik Mathiesen <thorinn@...>