| Abstrakt: |
The article deals with the semantic motivation of names denoting tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum). It is based on the material recorded in subdialects of European languages as answers to the questionnaire of the Atlas Linguarum Europae and presented in a geolinguistic map. In general, 6motivational groups of names have been established: 1) names based on Nahuatl tomatl, cf. Fr. tomate, Gm. Tomate, Port., It. tomata, Engl., Welsh, Irish, Scots, Manx tomato, Latv. t(u)omāts / t(u)omats / tumāts, Lith. tumãtas, etc.; 2) names based on Nahuatl tomatl with voiced anlaut, cf. Gr., Turk. domata, Alb. domate, Mac. domat, Serb. domatija; 3a) 'apple of paradise', cf. Gm. Paradeisapfel, Cr. paradajske, Hung. paradiscom, Cz. paradajka / rajče; 3b) 'love-apple', cf. Engl. love-apple / apple of love, Gm. Liebesapfel, Fr. pomme d'amour, It. pomodamore; 3c) 'small apple', cf. Cors. pumata, Sard. bomata; 3d) 'golden apple', cf. It. pomodoro, Russ., Bruss., Ukr., Pol., Cr. pomidor, Lith. pomidoras / pamidoras / pamidoris, Latv. pamidòrs, etc.; 3e) 'Frankish apple', cf. Gr. frangomilo, Bulg. frenki; 3f) 'swine-apple', cf. Kalm. haxan aľmn; 4a) 'egg-plant', cf. Bulg. patladžan, Russ., Ukr. baklažan; 4b) 'Frankish egg-plant', cf. Gr. frangomɛlindzána; 4c) 'red(dish) egg-plant', cf. Bosn. crveni patlidžan; 5a) 'red tomato', cf. Bulg. črveno domate; 5b) 'red cucumber', cf. Kum. k՚՚yzylbadirdzag; 6) 'sth. red / pink', cf. Rum. roşie / roşă. Having examined the attested forms regarding their origin and semantics, the author concludes that the names denoting a tomato plant or its fruit are rich in variants in the Baltic languages. But in some European languages, the tomato has been named after another fruit or vegetable (preferably apple, eggplant, and cucumber). Some phraseological units using the name of tomato are met in colloquial German. Only a few toponyms with the names of tomato have been attested in Latvian toponymy; there are no anthroponyms derived from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
