159
NOTES AND QUERIES
ON LOAN WORDS
In the Volume IV of the Journal (pp. 152-4) there are some interesting comments on "Loan-Words in the Chinese Language." This is a fairly venerable subject for study. Our sinological journals have many disquisitions on it; Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson (London 1903) contains many interesting tidbits; and such scholars as Laufer devoted many years to an inquiry into the names and history of imported plants (cf. his Sino-Iranica, Chicago 1919, and reviews and comments by Ferrand, Hopkins, Couling, and Pelliot.)
The peanut, which is mentioned in the first paragraph of "Loan-Words," has an especially interesting history. Dr. Berthold Laufer made a contribution to the subject in 1906, I followed with another in 1937, and Prof. Ho Ping-ti wrote an especially helpful piece in 1955. See his paper entitled "The introduction of American food plants into China,” American Anthropologist 57 (1955), 191-201. There he points out that the earliest reference to the peanut may be found in the Chung-yü-fa ‡✯ (Method of cultivating taro) by Huang Hsing-tseng ** (1490-1540), a native of Soochow. He translates the passage as follows:
+4
There is yet another kind whose flowers are on the vine-like stem. After the flowers fall, [the pods] begin to develop [underground]. It is called lo-hua-sheng. Both are produced in Chia-ting county [near Shanghai].”
Another early reference which fortifies the testimony of Huang is in the Ch'ang-shu-hsien chih ** of 1539; it lists the peanut as a product of the region of Ch'ang-shu, in the prefecture of Soochow.
Dr. Ho goes on to remark that the name lo-hua-shêng #± 落花生 which means "born from flowers fallen to the ground,” is used for no other plant in the hundreds of Chinese local histories and botanical treatises which he has consulted.
The peanut then, according to his researches, is the first plant from the New World to have been transferred and made
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Page 166
159
NOTES AND QUERIES
ON LOAN WORDS
In the Volume IV of the Journal (pp. 152-4) there are some interesting comments on "Loan-Words in the Chinese Language." This is a fairly venerable subject for study. Our sinological journals have many disquisitions on it; Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson (London 1903) contains many interesting tidbits; and such scholars as Laufer devoted many years to an inquiry into the names and history of imported plants (cf. his Sino-Iranica, Chicago 1919, and reviews and comments by Ferrand, Hopkins, Couling, and Pelliot.)
The peanut, which is mentioned in the first paragraph of "Loan-Words," has an especially interesting history. Dr. Berthold Laufer made a contribution to the subject in 1906, I followed with another in 1937, and Prof. Ho Ping-ti wrote an especially helpful piece in 1955. See his paper entitled "The introduction of American food plants into China,” American Anthropologist 57 (1955), 191 - 201. There he points out that the earliest reference to the peanut' may be found in the Chung-yü-fa ‡✯ (Method of cultivating taro) by Huang Hsing-tseng ** (1490 - 1540), a native of Soochow. He translates the passage as follows:
+4
There is yet another kind whose flowers are on the vine- like stem. After the flowers fall, [the pods] begin to develop [underground]. It is called lo-hua-sheng. Both are produced in Chia-ting county [near Shanghai].”
Another early reference which fortifies the testimony of Huang is in the Ch'ang-shu-hsien chih ** of 1539; it lists the peanut as a product of the region of Ch'ang-shu, in the prefecture of Soochow.
Dr. Ho goes on to remark that the name lo-hua-shêng #± 落花生 which means "born from flowers fallen to the ground,” is used for no other plant in the hundreds of Chinese local histories and botanical treatises which he has consulted.
The peanut then, according to his researches, is the first plant from the New World to have been transferred and made
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