melanzana

Italian

Alternative forms

melenzana (archaic, dialectal)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /me.lanˈd͡za.na/, /me.lanˈt͡sa.na/
Rhymes: -ana
Hyphenation: me‧lan‧zà‧na
Audio: (file)

Noun

melanzana f (plural melanzane)

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

Descendants

→ Byzantine Greek: μελιτζάνα (melitzána)
- Greek: μελιτζάνα (melitzána)
→ Austrian German: Melanzani
→ Greek: μελιτζάνα (melitzána)
→ Macedonian: малиџано (malidžano)
- → English: malidzano
→ Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic script: меланцана

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

Further reading

melanzana on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it