Origin of some of the common words in our usage are plainly mysterious! The name of the common pulse 'alasande' is a word based on a Greek name Alexander or Alexandria!
Alasande
It appears that the familiar slender, tubular, long bean sheathing the 'black-eyed pea' pulse or 'cow-pea' (Vigna unguiculata) known as alasande, originally from Africa, was apparently introduced to India by the Greeks and it was named after the ancient Greek hero Alexander or the Greek town of Alexandria. Read Manjunat's relevant note on Alasande.
The word 'alasanda' is said to be a Pali word that was absorbed into most of the Dravidian languages during the period of Budhism in south India.
The word has undergone several serial modifications in Tulu such as Alasande, Alsande, Alathande, Lathande, Lathane etc.
Alasangi
A word cited in Tulu Lexicon 'alasāngi' which means a woman, apparently does not have clearly deduced origin. Like the long beans 'alasande' this word might also have been derived from or related to Alexandria or the Greeks.
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A heritage blog by: Ravindra Mundkur & Hosabettu Vishwanatha
Arabs trafficked Greek women to India and Indian women to Greece. I think many of them worked as Devadasis in North and South India.
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Daily Life in Ancient India:
Jeanine Auboyer
I bwg to differ on this word"lattande". I think its a pure Tulu word with Tulu origins. We can split the word as 'latth'+ 'ande'. Here,in Tulu, latth means fresh and ande means a tubular structure. Hence the word latth-anDe> latthanDe > lattane.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right Mr Anonymous! 'Latthande' is definatly a Tulu word but it could have been created under the influence of the word 'Alsande'.
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