aubergine
UK /ˈəʊ.bə.ʒiːn/ · US /ˈoʊ.bɚ.ʒin/ noun
Forms aubergines
- noun (UK, Ireland) An Asian plant, Solanum melongena, cultivated for its edible purple, green, or white ovoid fruit; eggplant.
- noun (UK, Ireland) The fruit of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.
- noun A dark purple colour; eggplant.
Synonyms
the list at eggplant eggplant brinjal eggplant bush garden egg mad apple Solanum melongena
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French aubergine, from Catalan albergínia, from Arabic اَلْبَاذِنْجَان (al-bāḏinjān, “the aubergine”), from Classical Persian بَادِنْجَان (bādinjān), from بَاتِنْگَان (bātingān), from Sanskrit वातिङ्गण (vātiṅgaṇa, “the plant that cures the wind”), from Dravidian, ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *waẓVtV. Cognate with Malayalam വഴുതനങ്ങ (vaḻutanaṅṅa), Hindi बैंगन (baiṅgan). Doublet of brinjal, malidzano, and melongene.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “aubergine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details