Brinjals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A variety of nightshade cultivated for its edible fruit, often referred to as eggplant in many regions
2. A glossy, purple-skinned vegetable commonly used in cooking, favored for its distinctive flavor and texture
3. A type of fruit from the plant species Solanum melongena, prized for its versatility in various cuisines worldwide

Etymology: The word "brinjal" is a traveller's word that crossed at least five languages before reaching English. It began in Sanskrit as "vātiṅgaṇa" and passed through Classical Persian "bāzingān" and Arabic "bāḏinjān", where the Arabic form shows the same sound drift that later reshaped it in Portuguese as "beringela". Portuguese traders and colonists carried the vegetable and its name along their routes, and the English borrowing came directly from that Portuguese form. Brinjal is a doublet of "aubergine", "malidzano" and "melongene", meaning these are separate borrowings from the same ancestral root that entered English by different routes. The vegetable itself has a Proto-Dravidian name underlying the Sanskrit form, which shows how far back the plant's cultivation in South Asia reaches. Plural "brinjals" is simply the regular plural of "brinjal", formed by adding -s.

Synonyms: eggplants, aubergines