PARSLEY: WHAT'S IN A NAME?
As some of you know already, for the last 3 years I have been collecting 'parsley' names in various languages. This started because
someone told me that a) 'parsley' meant St Peter's herb (wrong) and b) that its names were very similar and started with a
P in various languages (right but only half the story).
Out of curiosity I went out on a search and now I have a
list with about 80 names. It has been like making a puzzle: to start with, you don't know the pattern but as it grows and the last pieces are extremely hard to find, one starts guessing what they are going to look like. Really exciting!
And here I have the pleasure of showing you my puzzle: a map of the currently spoken names for 'parsley' in various countries around the Mediterranean region, the area on which I've concentrated.
- Words derived from Petroselinum.
- Words derived from Petroselinum possibly going out of fashion.
- Words related to the Turkish word Maydanoz.
- Arabic words derived from Maydanoz.
- Exceptions.
For each country I have opted for its official language word found in the dictionary, which sometimes differed from the one given to me by native speakers, but more of that later. This is an over-simplification, for as you are aware there are many countries with more than one language.
So let's look at the first key word, Petroselinum which is a classical Greek word and the dominant one over most of Europe. Petroselinum means:
petros, stone/ rock +
selinum, celery. In English the etymology of the word 'parsley' starts from Greek Petroselinon> Latin Petrocilium> Late Latin Petrosillum> Old English Petersilie> Middle English, influenced by Old French, Peresil> 'parsley'.
At this stage you can easily guess how words like
Persil,
Perejil,
Prezemollo,
Peterselie,
Petrushka,
Persilja,
Perrezil, and many others including
Bersomello and
Tursin, developed in other languages. However, I have detected a change in the air: in tune with recent history, some native speakers of the ex Soviet Union republics are getting away from the dictionary and their Petrushka related words are out. Thus I have marked
Belorussia, where I was told Petrushka is considered a comic character, and
Kazakhstan, with shaded dots.
Nevertheless there is a remarkable name similarity throughout
languages spoken in Europe. Why should this be?
Well, 'parsley' seeds are difficult to germinate. Have you tried? My feeling is that because of that it spread slowly out of its native place, carefully passed from hand to hand, and it never acquired local names like, for instance, wild mushrooms have. What was then parsley's origin?
Nobody knows for sure, but its history in the Eastern Mediterranean is fascinating and dates from a very long way back. A quick glance at Greek mythology yields good results: Homer's Odyssey, written ~ 7th century BC, has a description of 'parsley' growing on the island of Ogygia, alas an imaginary place and, a century later, in the Nemean games the victor was rewarded with a crown of 'parsley'.
Back to my map, am I right in guessing that some of you have already spotted that Greece is not in the Petroselinum camp? Indeed, the present Greek name is
Maindanтs derived from the Turkish
Maydanoz, the other key word in my map, marked in stripes. Curious isn't it?
What happened was that a Latin term related to an ancient Greek place - Macedonence - became a Turkish word -
Maydanoz - and then a modern Greek word - Maindanтs. All this happened because after the Turks arrived in Anatolia, over 9 centuries ago, they had to borrow a word for 'parsley', most certainly because they were new to this herb. I've been told that
Makedonce is still one of the words for 'parsley' in a dialect of the Macedonian language.
Not surprisingly the Balkan region is strongly on the Maydanoz side, which is where Macedonia is located. Do you remember Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire?
Let's get back to the Turks. During the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922) they had an enormous influence not only on the Greek language but on the Arabic speaking nations one as well. For example the Arabic words
Maqdunis/ Baqdunis both derive from the Turkish Maydanoz. Just look at the map and see that Maydanoz also extends over the Middle East and North Africa including Morocco which was never under the Turks. I marked these countries with wider stripes because I discovered that Arabic speakers sometimes identify coriander (
Coriandrum sativum) as Maqdunis/ Baqdunis. This is understandable as it is a much more popular herb than 'parsley' in their cuisine and also very easy to grow in a hot climate.
Within the
Semitic group of languages things are also a bit fuzzy regarding the correct designation of 'parsley' (
Petroselinum sativum) and the herb celery (
Apium graveolens). They are botanically very close and their seeds are almost identical.
For instance take Karpas the Hebrew word for celery. During the Passover ceremony a fresh green herb, which traditionally is called Karpas, is passed around in a dish, and quite often 'parsley' is used. However I've marked Israel in green dots in my map because the modern Hebrew word for 'parsley' is
Petersilia, which appears in the Talmud (3rd -5th century AD).
Karpas to me looks suspiciously similar to the Karfus/ Krafs, the dictionary Arabic for celery as well. Look at the tiny speck between Sicily and North Africa, the archipelago of Malta, which was never under the
Ottoman Empire.
The
Maltese for 'parsley' is Tursin, derived from the Scilian Petrosino, and also Karfus thus reflecting influences from the north and the south.
Obviously I had to do a search for the pre-Maydanoz word in Arabic to complete my puzzle. Eventually I found
Karafs in a huge 12th century Hispano-Arabic agricultural book, which thank goodness had a Spanish translation alongside the Arabic. Then I had the pleasure of reading lovely
instructions on how to germinate its seeds.
Still on the Iberian peninsula most of you are familiar with the Spanish word Salsa, meaning sauce. Not so in Portuguese, where
Salsa means, just guess.... 'parsley', of course!
Maria Fremlin,
11 October 2001, Colchester, Essex, England PS: This article was written for the modern languages bulletin of Grey Friars Adult Community College, where I am the
Portuguese tutor.
LIST OF PARSLEY NAMES IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES & DIALECTS
I have collected these 'parsley' names from dictionaries and also directly from native and non native-speakers.
Names derived from
Petroselinum are in
bold.
Names derived from
Maydanos are in
italics.
Names followed by an asterisk (
*) indicate information, given to me by native speakers, which isn't in a dictionary.
Any names followed by a question mark (
?) need re-checking. Please
contact me if you can help clarifying them. Ditto if you find any mistakes.
AfghanJafarey Albanian
Majdanoz/ Magdanoz/ Magdanos Algerian: Arabic & Berber
Ma`dnus/ Maqdunis Amharicnot in the dictionary/
Bersomelo* Arabic-classicalKarafs Arabic-modern
Baqdunis/ Maqdunis Aramaic
Petrosilinon ArmenianHamem
*/ AzadkeghAzeriCefery/ Nana
*Basque
Perrezil Belarus
Piatruska/ Mesterca
* Bengali
/pa:sli/ Bosnian
Peryin/ Petrusina Breton
Perisilh Bulgarian
Magdanoz CatalanJulivert CantoneseHeung choi Croatian
Pershun/ Petrusina Czech
Petrzel Danish
Persilie Dutch
Peterselie Egyptian Arabic
Baqdunis English
Parsley Esperanto
Petroselo Estonian
Aedpetersell/ Petersel'l/ Petersell Finnish
Persilja French
Persil Galician
Pirixel/ Prixel GeorgianOkhrakhushi German
Petersilie Greek-classical
Petroselinon Greek-modern
Maidanтs/ Makedonisi Hebrew-classicalKarpas/ Kharti
? Hebrew-rabbinical
Petrosilinon Hebrew-modern
Petersilia/ Petrozilia HindiAjmod Hungarian/Magyar
Petrezselyem IndonesianSeledri Iranian ArabicAl-shibba
* Iraqi Arabic
Maqdunis/ Krafus Irish
Persille Italian
Prezzemolo Italian, Sicilian dialect
Petrosino Japanese
Pбsиri/ Oranda Seri Jordanian Arabic
Baqdunis Kasakh
Petrushka/ Desbarmak
* Korean
Paselli/ Parsley KurdishJa'afari/ Ja'afriKuwaiti Arabic
Baqdunis Kyrgyz
Petrushka/ Baltyrkan Latvian
Petersili/ Petersilis Ligurian
Porsemmo Lithuanian
Petrazolј/ Petrazole Libyan Arabic
Maqdunis Macedonian
Magdanos/ Magdonos/ Makedonce* Maltese
Tursin/ Karfus
* Mandarin Xiang caн/ Yansui Moldovian
Pretunjel Moroccan
Maqdunis MongolianYanshuiNorwegian
Persille Persian (Farsi)Ja'afari Polish
Pietruszka PortugueseSalsa Provenзal
Peiresilh Romanian
Patrunjel Russian
Petrushka SanscritAjamoda Sardinian and its dialects
Padrusнmula/ Pedrusнmulu/ Petrusнmbulu/ etc.Saudi Arabian Arabic
Baqdunis Scottish
Parsley/ Parsly Serbian
Pershun Slovak
Petrzlen Slovenian
Petersilj Spanish/ Castilian
Perejil Syrian Arabic
Baqdunis Swedish
Persilja Tatar
Petrushka ThaiPаk chee far rаng/ pagchi farang Tigrinya (Eritrea)not in the dictionary/
Bersemello* Tunisian Arabic
Maqdunis Turkish
Maydanoz Turkmen
Petrushka Ukranian
Petrushka UrduDhaniа UyghurAshchamghur/ Ashkцki Uzbek
Petrushka VietnameseRau mui tay Yemeni Arabic
Baqdunis Yiddish
PetreschkeWelsh
Perllys/ Persli