Talk:żinżel

Etymology

@Fenakhay: My first guess it is زِفْزِف (zifzif, “jujube”), dissimilated or mixed with another word perhaps, as the reduplication must have been difficult to preserve – عَنْصَل (ʕanṣal)? خَرْدَل (ḵardal)? حَرْمَل (ḥarmal)? حَنْظَل (ḥanẓal)? A mere popularity of this pattern? Where does the -al in سَرْوَل (sarwal) come from? In any case the identify of the word is without doubt because of the forms in Spanish jínjol, Catalan gínjol, but I don’t know whether it is Vulgar Latin or the Romance forms are Vulgar Arabic. Diccionari català-valencià-balear mentions a Sicilian ndzíndzula (not found else) which is most close and could be explained as having the known Latin diminutive -ulus, -ula, or as being from an Arabic singulative, which is also a more natural borrowing direction with respect to the origin of the plant. You could search Sicilian sources, but there is probably a problem with the tree being unusual in Europe and so the word. Fay Freak (talk) 02:36, 3 December 2020 (UTC)