DisputedIndirect, via a person or title
sorghum
noun · first attested 16th century
The name may credit Syria for a crop that actually came out of Africa.
A cereal grass grown for grain, syrup, and fodder.
Record
- Relationship
- Indirect, via a person or title
- Confidence
- DisputedCompeting explanations remain live.
- Attested
- 16th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Syria
- In English
sorghum
English took sorghum in the 1590s from the modern Latin genus name, which came through Italian sorgo and medieval Latin surgum. One line of etymology traces that to Latin Syricum granum, Syrian grain, on the theory that the crop reached Italy by way of Syria. Sorghum was domesticated in northeastern Africa, so if the etymology holds, the name records a trade route rather than a homeland.
Syria
All 7 entries 6 more words from Syria
damaskThe cloth and the steel both remember Damascus.DamascusdamsonThe plum is a damascene fruit in miniature.DamascusDamascus steelThe watered steel carries the city that traded it.DamascusAleppo soapThe laurel oil, not the olive oil, is what makes it Aleppo soap.AleppoDamascene conversionOne blinding flash on a Syrian trade road now describes any change of heart.Damascusroad to DamascusOne of the world's oldest cities is now shorthand for changing your mind.Damascus