زرودية
Algerian Arabic
Etymology
Unknown; reflexes of سفنارية (safnāriyya, “carrot”) like the ruling term for the carrot in Libyan Arabic and in Andalusian Arabic still are found in some Algerian areas and old-fashionedly in Morocco, which insinuates that the Graecism was displaced by this term in Modern times. It is derived by some from the place-name of Wādī Zrūd though at that place the other term is still used. The existence of Persian زردک (zardak, “carrot”, literally “yellowling”) in conjunction with the frequency of hailing the carrot by its yellow colour across languages however suggests a connection to this – perhaps it is at first a Berber borrowing reshaped-by-analogy to Arabic forms or a blend with the former term, compare Kabyle zrudga (“carrot”), but the way and actuality of passage from Persian is questionable, under the circumstances that no Ottoman Turkish mediation took place since the relatable Ottoman Turkish forms are rare and the Arabic term is first mentioned in the 11th century by Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī. It might be alternatively connected to زُرُنْبَاد (zurunbād, “pinecone ginger; zedoary”), the flower-heads of which if not the rhizomes look suggestive to comparison with the carrot.
Noun
زرودية (zrūdiyya) f
- carrot
Descendants
- → Kabyle: zrudeyya
References
- Behnstedt, Peter; Woidich, Manfred (2010) Wortatlas der arabischen Dialekte – Band I: Mensch, Natur, Fauna und Flora (Handbook of Oriental Studies – Handbuch der Orientalistik; 100) (in German), Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, DOI:, →ISBN, pages 467–468
- Wexler, Paul (1996) Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews, Albany: State University of New York Press, page 152
Moroccan Arabic
Etymology
See Algerian Arabic زرودية (zrūdiyya) etymology.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zruː.dij.ja/
Audio (file)
Noun
زرودية • (zrūdiyya) f
- (Eastern Morocco) carrot
- Synonyms: خيزو (ḵīzzu), جعدة (jaʕda)