† melongenan.

Etymology: < scientific Latin melongena (adopted as a specific epithet by Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum (1753) I. 186, after use as a genus name in J. Pitton de Tournefort Inst. Rei Herbariæ (1700) I. 151) < post-classical Latin melongena (13th cent.) < medieval Greek μελιντζάνα (14th cent.: see note), variant after ancient Greek μέλας (see melano- comb. form) of Byzantine Greek ματιζάνιον (11th cent.: see note) < Arabic bāḏinjān < Persian bādingān < Sanskrit and Pali vātiṅgaṇa (in Sanskrit also vātigama ; Prakrit vāiṃaṇa ) < Dravidian (compare Malayalam vaṟutina , Tamil vaṟutuṇai ). Compare Old French melanjan melongene n., Italian regional (Verona) melongiana (14th cent.), and Italian melanzana (1476); however, the form melangeno in quot. 1819 appears not to be attested in Spanish. See also aubergine n., brinjal n., mad-apple n.Forms attested in Byzantine and medieval Greek include ματιζάνιον (11th cent.), μελιντζάνα (14th cent.), and μελιντζάνιον (a1653). The form melanzāna is recorded as Byzantine Greek in Sicilian use by the Arab geographer Idrisi in the 12th cent. It is likely that the word was borrowed in a multitude of forms, including forms in the diminutive suffix -ιον (compare -y suffix⁴) which were extremely common in late Greek. N.E.D. (1906) gives the pronunciation as (melǫ̆ndʒī·nă) /mɛlənˈdʒiːnə/.