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prettygoodwordMore words we got from Tupian languages of South America—focusing this week on plants and foods, starting with one I had no idea about and is also kinda wild:
petunia (pi-TOO-nyuh, pi-TOO-nee-uh, pi-TYOO-nyuh) - n., any of several South American flowering plants of genus Petunia of the nightshade family widely cultivated for their trumpet-shaped flowers of various colors.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Around 20 species, though that's not an easy count as garden varieties are a profusion of hybrids. Not my favorite, but they can be pretty. Here's where it gets wild: English got the name from the genus name in New Latin, from French pétun, an obsolete name for tabacco, from either Spanish petum from Guaraní pety, tabacco, or from Portuguese petum from Old Tupi petɨ́ma/petyn, tabacco. This makes a little bit of sense when you remember that tabacco is also a nightshade with trumpet-shaped flowers, and yes there are species of Nicotiana native to the Tupi-Guaraní speaking regions, but still -- that's an unexpected semantic shift.
---L.
petunia (pi-TOO-nyuh, pi-TOO-nee-uh, pi-TYOO-nyuh) - n., any of several South American flowering plants of genus Petunia of the nightshade family widely cultivated for their trumpet-shaped flowers of various colors.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Around 20 species, though that's not an easy count as garden varieties are a profusion of hybrids. Not my favorite, but they can be pretty. Here's where it gets wild: English got the name from the genus name in New Latin, from French pétun, an obsolete name for tabacco, from either Spanish petum from Guaraní pety, tabacco, or from Portuguese petum from Old Tupi petɨ́ma/petyn, tabacco. This makes a little bit of sense when you remember that tabacco is also a nightshade with trumpet-shaped flowers, and yes there are species of Nicotiana native to the Tupi-Guaraní speaking regions, but still -- that's an unexpected semantic shift.
---L.
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Date: 2025-11-03 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-03 03:30 pm (UTC)I know, right? Somehow a South American origin didn't ever cross my mind.
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Date: 2025-11-03 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-03 05:46 pm (UTC)Possibly because it’s become a stock (and usually comically antiquated) feminine English-language name? (Cf. Petunia Pig, Petunia the skunk in Disney’s Bambi, Ben Grimm’s Aunt Petunia, and a character in the British Wizard Franchise.)
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Date: 2025-11-04 04:14 am (UTC)Yes exactly!
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Date: 2025-11-03 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-03 05:17 pm (UTC)They are. Now that I know it, I can see a resemblance to, say, datura, but it was startling to learn that.
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Date: 2025-11-03 06:47 pm (UTC)