aubergine
pronunciation
How to pronounce aubergine in British English:
UK [ˈəʊbəʒi:n]
How to pronounce aubergine in American English:
US [ˈoʊbərʒin]
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- Noun:
- hairy upright herb native to southeastern Asia but widely cultivated for its large glossy edible fruit commonly used as a vegetable
- egg-shaped vegetable having a shiny skin typically dark purple but occasionally white or yellow
Word Origin
- aubergine
- aubergine: [18] Etymologically, the aubergine is the ‘anti-fart vegetable’. That was the meaning of its ultimate source, Sanskrit vātinganah, so named because it did not produce intestinal gas. This was borrowed into Persian as bādingān, and reached Arabic as (with the definite article al) al-bādindjān. It then made its way with the Moors into the Iberian peninsula: here it produced Portuguese beringela (source of brinjal [18], an Indian and African English term for ‘aubergine’) and, with the definite article retained, Catalan alberginia.French turned this into aubergine and passed it on to English. In British English it has gradually replaced the earlier eggplant, named after the vegetable’s shape, which American English has retained.
- aubergine (n.)
- "eggplant," 1794, from French aubergine, "fruit of the eggplant" (Solanum esculentum), diminutive of auberge "a kind of peach," variant of alberge, from Spanish alberchigo "apricot" [OED]. Klein derives the French word from Catalan alberginera, from Arabic al-badinjan "the eggplant," from Persian badin-gan, from Sanskrit vatigagama. As a color like that of the eggplant fruit, it is attested from 1895.
Example
- 1. But most of these men , registered at the consultation as farmers , were in fact landless labourers with no aubergine experience .
- 2. Roberts arrives shortly afterwards , looking very banker-like in a pinstriped suit with a pink shirt and an aubergine silk tie .
- 3. Waiters in blue robes with gold trim delivered steaming pots of turkish coffee and plates of grilled aubergine to wide-eyed smokers staring out of a window neatly inscribed , " founded 1908 " .
- 4. In mid-february the government issued a moratorium on the development of gm aubergine ( bt brinjal , as it is known locally ) , despite a ruling last year by an official scientific advisory body in favour of the technology .