A mocha coffee, for instance, is named after the seaport of Mocha in Yemen where the arabica coffee was shipped from.
The word bungalow, meaning a single-storey house, comes from India, from the Hindi word for a low thatched house, bangla meaning literally ‘Bengalese house’.
A sturdy fabric called serge, made in the French town of Nimes, was known as serge de Nimes, but was soon shortened to denim, the jeans fabric we know so well.
The word jeans comes from the Italian word genuense meaning ‘of Genoa’ because the denim was used here to make sails, and then, because of its durability, clothes for peasants.
The city of Manchester in England was at one time the most productive centre of cotton processing and the world’s largest marketplace for cotton goods. It was dubbed Cottonopolis during the Victorian era. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term manchester is still used for household linen.
What we call china was originally ‘porcelain imported from China’ and the root vegetable swede was first introduced into Scotland from Sweden.
The twilled table linen damask is named after the Syrian capital Damascus and manila envelopes are made from manila fibre grown in Manila in the Philippines.
The long-distance running event we call a marathon was named in honour of the Greek soldier who ran 240 km in two days, to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon.
Smooth cajoling talk, known as blarney, comes from kissing the Blarney Stone, in the castle of Blarney, a town in Co Cork Ireland.
The duffel bag and duffel coat are made from a thick cloth made in Duffel, a town in Belgium.
All these words add to the richness and variety of our English language, as well as linking us English speakers to the rest of the world.
Happy Puzzling!
