Food & drink

longan

The longan is Chinese 龍眼 'dragon's eye', because the black seed in the pale flesh looks like an eye; English took the Cantonese lung ngaan, while Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese read the same characters in their own ways.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Cantonese to Malay

From Middle Chinese to Vietnamese

From Middle Chinese to Japanese

From Middle Chinese to Korean

From Middle Chinese to Mandarin Chinese

From Cantonese to New Latin

From English to French

600 CEMiddle Chinese

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

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