The fruit and the taste are well known enough. Less well known is the etymology.
The Arabs encountered it first, and found they visually resembled dates (tamr). Hence, tamr-al-hind (dates of Hind = India.)
From there on to Latin - tamarindus and tamarind in English.
The botanical name is tamarindus indica which would equate to "dates of india from india".
Shades of Major Major Major Major?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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1 comment:
And then there is the Child's Garden of Misinformation version, which I rather like -- "Tamarind is a tropical fruit. You eat the tama and you throw away the rind."
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