lws
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| This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Doesn't really look like Proto-Hmong-Mien *ɟa (“eggplant”), itself borrowed from Middle Chinese 茄 (MC gja|kae),[1] and yet doesn't look like the forms for "eggplant" in any neighbor language either. Maybe it is from the proto-HM form, via some unexpected sound changes? Or maybe it's an autochthonous "sound-symbolic" form (compare Armenian լոլիկ (lolik, “tomato”) for a similar semantic development from a "lol"-type sound)? On the other hand, it does look a bit like the second syllable of Indonesian terung (“eggplant”).” |
lws (classifier: lub)