Eggplant or aubergine?

Carol has taken this picture of Diego's splendid aubergine plant on Site 2. She says "I can see why it is called an eggplant". So if you've ever wondered why... it's to do with the history of movement round the world...

Diego's Eggplant

The French word for this vegetable is aubergine. When European settlers originally brought the aubergine to the United States, they brought a white version and these egg-shaped, pale vegetables inspired the name “eggplant” because they looked like goose eggs.

Originally, the western Mediterranean word for an aubergine was (al)-bāḏinjān. Through trade, this word began to spread and changed as different countries listened, misheard, and altered the word according to their own language.

It became the Spanish berenjena, and then in Catalan, it was known as albergínia. In Portugal, the word was beringela.

This spread across the globe, and much of the English-speaking world now uses “aubergine” to refer to this popular vegetable, but in the USA Eggplant reigns supreme!