Food & drinkMyths & disputes

mangosteen

Malay manggis was the general name for these fruits; a longer form, manggistan, passed through Dutch into English. The spelling drifted toward 'mango', but the two fruits are unrelated.

Weakest linkProbable

The story you may have heard

That the mangosteen is a kind of mango; the names only look alike, and 'mango' may have influenced the spelling.

The road to English

From Malay to Portuguese

From Dutch to New Latin

From Dutch to French

From Dutch to German

From Portuguese to Spanish

From Malay to Thai

From English to Japanese

1500Malay

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

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