OCR Text |
Show Names of Things We Eat The names of the things we eat have curious derivations. The humble hum-ble vegetable, parsley, for instance, traveled from Greek to Latin, from Latin to Saxon, and from thence to its present form. It actually has the same origin as the name Peter (a rock), for it grew among the rocks of ancient Rome. Potato is from the Spanish patata, which, in turn, says Pearson's London Weekly Week-ly Magazine, came from the Hay-tian Hay-tian batata, a sweet-tasting type of yam. The word sweet goes back to the Sanscrit svad to taste; and sugar has also come to us from the same ancient language, via Persian, Per-sian, Arabic, Spanish and French. The Sanscrit for sugar was car-kara, car-kara, which first meant "grains of sand." |