Chinese

Noun

菠薐

1. (archaic or Min) spinach

   菜之菠薐，本西國中有僧將其子來，如苜蓿、蒲陶，因張騫而至也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]

   菜之菠薐，本西国中有僧将其子来，如苜蓿、蒲陶，因张骞而至也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

   From: Tang Dynasty, Wei Xuan, 《劉賓客嘉話錄》

   Cài zhī bōléng, běn xīguó zhōng yǒu sēng jiāng qí zǐ lái, rú mùxu, pútáo, yīn Zhāng Qiān ér zhì yě. [Pinyin]

   Seeds of the vegetable spinach, were originally brought here [to China] by monks from the western country [i.e. India], like alfalfa and grape which were introduced by Zhang Qian.

   菠薐煮豆腐 [Min Dong, trad. and simp.]

   puŏ-lìng cṳ̄ dâu-hô / [pʰuo⁵⁵ l̃iŋ⁵³ t͡sy³³ tau²⁴²⁻⁵³ ^(h-)ou²⁴²] [Bàng-uâ-cê / IPA]

   tofu spinach pot

Synonyms

Derived terms

References

1. ↑ Berthold Laufer (1919) Sino-Iranica: Chinese contributions to the history of civilization in ancient Iran, with special reference to the history of cultivated plants and products, page 397-398: “As a matter of fact, spinach is a vegetable of the temperate zones and alien to tropical regions. A genuine Sanskrit word for the spinach is unknown. Nevertheless Chinese po-liṅ, *pwa-liṅ, must represent the transcription of some Indian vernacular name. In Hindustānī we have palak as designation for the spinach, and palaṅ or palak as name for Beta vulgaris, Puštu pālak, apparently developed from Sanskrit pālaṅka, pālankya, palakyū, pālakyā, to which our dictionaries attribute the meaning “a kind of vegetable, a kind of beet-root, Beta bengalensis”; in Bengālī paluṅ. To render the coincidence with the Chinese form complete, there is also Sanskrit Pālakka or Pālaka as the name of a country, which has evidently resulted in the assertion of Buddhist monks that the spinach must come from a country Paliṅga. The Nepalese, accordingly, applied a word relative to a native plant to the newly-introduced spinach, and, together with the product, handed this word on to China...”