Trade, money & letters

cinnamon

Herodotus says the Greeks learned the word for cinnamon from the Phoenicians, and Hebrew qinnāmōn shows the Semitic form. The spice itself came from South and Southeast Asia, so the word may be older still; Latin passed it to German and Polish, botanists made it a genus, and English sent 'cinnamon' to Japan and Korea.

Weakest linkProbable

The road to English

From Biblical Hebrew to Modern Hebrew

From Latin to Old High German, Middle High German, German

From Ancient Greek to Armenian

From Latin to Polish

From Latin to New Latin

From English to American English

From English to Japanese

From English to Korean

600 BCEBiblical Hebrew

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.