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quinine (KWAI-nain, KWIN-ain, kwi-NEEN) - n., a bitter crystalline alkaloid (C20H24N2O2) originally extracted from cinchona bark (from plants of genus Cinchona), used as an antimalarial and to flavor tonic water; a drug containing quinine or a derivative of it.
Okay, that's not 100% correct -- usually it's a salt of quinine, rather than itself, that's used in tonic water. But trying to get that in was making things Too Complicated. Historically important, as it was the first treatment for malaria that actually worked, but not longer recommended as there are modern treatments that work better with fewer side effects. The root is Quechua kina-kina, a reduplication of kina, bark, specifically cinchona bark -- we got it either through Spanish, where it was spelled quinaquina and then clipped to quina then suffixed with -ine indicating a chemical compound, or French, where it was spelled quinquina and went through the same clipping and suffixing. (Dictionaries do not make it clear whether French got it directly from Quechua or via Spanish.) And it case you're wondering, cinchona are about two dozen species of shrubs native to the Andes:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
And that wraps up our second and final week of words from Quechua. There are more indigenous South American languages to come, but first a week of random words to cleanse thepallet palette palate.
---L.
Okay, that's not 100% correct -- usually it's a salt of quinine, rather than itself, that's used in tonic water. But trying to get that in was making things Too Complicated. Historically important, as it was the first treatment for malaria that actually worked, but not longer recommended as there are modern treatments that work better with fewer side effects. The root is Quechua kina-kina, a reduplication of kina, bark, specifically cinchona bark -- we got it either through Spanish, where it was spelled quinaquina and then clipped to quina then suffixed with -ine indicating a chemical compound, or French, where it was spelled quinquina and went through the same clipping and suffixing. (Dictionaries do not make it clear whether French got it directly from Quechua or via Spanish.) And it case you're wondering, cinchona are about two dozen species of shrubs native to the Andes:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
And that wraps up our second and final week of words from Quechua. There are more indigenous South American languages to come, but first a week of random words to cleanse the
---L.
