Re: Country names
| From: | David Starner <dvdeug@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, May 13, 2003, 22:25 |
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On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 09:22:55AM +0200, Andreas Johansson wrote:
> Reminds me: www.zompist.com gives the following Arabic etymology for the word
> "candy":
>
> candy - short for 'sugar candy', from sugar + qandi 'candied', from qand 'cane
> sugar' - from a Dravidian language
>
> I was taught it derived from the placename "Candia", because Crete was a major
> producer of sugar cane during some period. Does anyone know more about
> this?
The 1913 Unabrigided Webster (available on the net) gives (excuse the
random phonetic spelling that later got hacked into ASCII):
Candy \Can"dy\ (k[a^]n"d[y^]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Candied}
(k[a^]n"d[=e]d); p. pr & vb. n. {Candying}.] [F. candir (cf.
It. candire, Sp. az['u]car cande or candi), fr. Ar. & Pers.
qand, fr. Skr. Kha[.n][.d]da piece, sugar in pieces or
lumps, fr. kha[.n][.d], kha[.d] to break.]
So from the French, from the Arabic or Persian, from the Sanskrit (?).
--
David Starner - dvdeug@email.ro
Ic sæt me on anum leahtrice, ða com heo and bát me!
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