....and all that jazZ

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Of Brinjals and Eggplant

So I happened to tell Costa and Safy that in India we call Eggplant, Brinjal in English. They were in splits for all of lunch. Point being how can the same vegetable have two names in the same language. So we decided we would ask our British manager, thinking it might have been a British legacy.
Me : Graham, Do you know what a brinjal is ?
G : A What !!!!!!!!?????????
Me : A brinjal ?
G : How do u spell it ?
Me : B-R-I-N-J-A-L. ( And i explain the whole context to him )
G : Thats funny. incidentally whn i first came to the US i didnt know what they meant by eggplant either.
Me : (Can't control my laughter at this point) So what do u call an eggplant in UK ?
G : Well, we dont have eggplants. I had never eaten one till I came here.

Concensus : The rest of the world calls it eggplant. Brinjal has to be the British way of saying Baingan. Interesting thought eh ????

Costa and I looked up the webster and the oxford and neither have the word "Brinjal " in it.

4 Comments:

  • thatz strange...worth investigating where the name came from...i am headed to Google to begin research

    Originally @ Sep 02, 2003 18:50 PST

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:25 AM  

  • "the branch which took it from Arabic badinjan, through Portuguese bringella, back to India to become the Anglo-Indian brinjalle. As brinjal this word is still used in India. From there the British took brinjalle halfway around the world to the West Indies where it became brown-jolly."...lil bit of quick research revealed this...

    Originally @ Sep 02, 2003 18:58 PST

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:25 AM  

  • wotever its called..i like it!!!!!!!!

    Originally @ Sep 03, 2003 09:25 PST

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:25 AM  

  • very strange indeed ....

    Originally @ Sep 03, 2003 12:04 PST

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:26 AM  

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