This map, created by Hasaim Hussein in 2019 for the magazine Lapham's Quarterly, shows how some words travelled and transformed themselves along trade routes.
The different colours show six important words in international trade throughout history:
- Tomato (red): The original name from Nahuatl reached Europe via the Spanish in the 16th century with that name, although the Italians chose to call it pomodoro (golden apple), the name by which this product became known throughout Eastern Europe.
- Coca (blue): The original name from Quechua also reached Europe via the Spanish. From there, it was introduced into the English-speaking world and ended up becoming part of the popular Coca-Cola brand.
- Cotton (grey): The Arabic root al-qutn was the one who introduced the name of this product to Europe. The Persian root pembe It was the one that reached Anatolia and spread throughout much of Asia and southern Africa.
- Tea (green): Originally from China, it has two words that reached Europe via the trade route. Chá, the root used in India and much of Asia, and Tea, the root used in much of Europe.
- Whiskey (yellow): From the Gaelic word uisge-beatha (water of life) was adapted into English in Scotland as whiskey and from there adapted phonetically into all the languages of the world.
- Ivory (purple): The original name from ancient Egyptian abu is where the name of this product originates in most of the world. The exceptions are Portuguese and Spanish, where the current name derives from Arabic. nab al-fil (elephant tooth).
Sources
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English (UK)