Etymograph

English

mango

Mango comes from Portuguese manga ‘mango (fruit)’, and goes back to Malayalam കായ ‘nut, seed’.

  1. Malayalammodernകായkāya‘nut, seed’
  2. Malayalam, derivedmodernമാങ്ങmāṅṅa
  3. Portuguesec. 1500–presentmanga‘mango (fruit)’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1738mango

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Malayalammodernകായkāya‘nut, seed’
  2. Malayalam, derivedmodernമാങ്ങmāṅṅa
  3. Portuguesec. 1500–presentmanga‘mango (fruit)’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1738mango

Earliest quotation: 1738, –November, VI. his Answer to the Marquis de Caumont's Letter, concernin: “And I have one [bezoar] form'd round the Stone…”

first attested First used for the fruit as early as the 1580s and the tree by the 1670s (as stated in the etymology)

The story

Borrowed from Portuguese manga, from Malayalam മാങ്ങ (māṅṅa) / Tamil மாங்காய் (māṅkāy), possibly via Malay mangga, ultimately from Proto-South Dravidian *mām-kāy (‘unripe mango’), a compound of *mām (‘mango tree’) + *kāy (‘unripe fruit’). The etymology of the -o ending is not certain.

Every English word from Malayalam കായ

Today it means

noun Any of species Mangifera indica of tropical Asian fruit trees.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Malayalam കായ / mango

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