melanzana

Italian

Alternative forms

melenzana (obsolete, dialectal)

Etymology

From Arabic بَاذِنْجَان‎ (bāḏinjān), from now archaic Persian ‎ (bâdengân), from Sanskrit भण्डाकी (bhaṇḍākī, “aubergine”), reshaped under the influence of mela (“apple”). Compare Greek μελιτζάνα (melitzána), Sicilian milinciana and Medieval Latin mēlongēna.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /me.lanˈdza.na/, /me.lanˈtsa.na/
Hyphenation: me‧lan‧zà‧na

Noun

melanzana f (plural melanzane)

aubergine (British); eggplant (US)
Synonym: petonciano (Central Italy, rare)
(US, Italian-American slang) dummy (as though “eggplant-head”)

Derived terms

Descendants

→ Byzantine Greek: μελιτζάνα (melitzána)
- Greek: μελιτζάνα (melitzána)
→ German: Melanzani
→ Greek: μελιτζάνα (melitzána)
→ Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: меланцана

Latin: melancana
→ Slovene: melancána
→ Tigrinya: መለንዛና (mälänzana)

Further reading

melanzana on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it

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