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kumquat

The little citrus is Cantonese 'golden orange'; the same second syllable gave English loquat. Korea and Vietnam read the characters their own way, and after the plant hunter Robert Fortune brought it to Europe in 1846 the Cantonese name spread to French, German, Russian and Hebrew.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Middle Chinese to Korean

From Middle Chinese to Vietnamese

From English to French

From English to German

From English to Russian

From English to Modern Hebrew

1000Middle Chinese

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

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