Chapter GINDY to GINGER of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

among Europeans.”—Hanbury & Fluckiger, 426.

1875.—“Oils, Jinjili or Til.…”—Table of Customs Duties, imposed on Imports into B. India, up to 1875.

1876.—“There is good reason for believing that a considerable portion of the olive oil of commerce is but the Jinjili, or the groundnut, oil of India, for besides large exports, of both oils to Europe, several thousand tons of the sesamum seed, and ground-nuts in smaller quantities, are exported annually from the south of India to France, where their oil is expressed, and finds its way into the market, as olive oil.”—Suppl. Report on Supply of Drugs to India, by Dr. Paul, India Office, March, 1876.

GINGER, s. The root of Zingiber officinale, Roxb. We get this word from the Arabic zanjabil, Sp. agengibre (al-zanjabil), Port. gingibre, Latin zingiber, Ital. zenzero, gengiovo, and many other old forms.

The Skt. name is sriñgavera, professedly connected with sriñga, ‘a horn,’ from the antler-like form of the root. But this is probably an introduced word shaped by this imaginary etymology. Though ginger is cultivated all over India, from the Himalaya to the extreme south,¹ the best is grown in Malabar, and in the language of that province (Malayalam) green ginger is called inchi and inchi-ver, from inchi, ‘root.’ Inchi was probably in an earlier form of the language siñchi or chiñchi, as we find it in Canarese still sunti, which is perhaps the true origin of the H. sonth for ‘dry ginger,’ [more usually connected with Skt. sunthi, sunth, ‘to dry’].

It would appear that the Arabs, misled by the form of the name, attributed zanjabil or zinjabil, or ginger, to the coast of Zinj or Zanzibar; for it would seem to be gin ger which some Arabic writers speak of as ‘the plant of Zinj.’ Thus a poet quoted by Kazwini enumerates among the products of India the shajr al-Zanij or Arbor Zingitana, along with shisham-wood, pepper, steel, &c. (seeGildemeister, 218). And Abulfeda says also: “At Melinda is found the plant of Zinj” (Geog. by Reinaud, i. 257). In Marino Sanudo’s map of the world also (c. 1320) we find a rubric connecting Zinziber with Zinj. We do not indeed find ginger spoken of as a product of eastern continental Africa, though Barbosa says a large quantity was produced in Madagascar, and Varthema says the like of the Comoro Islands.

c. A.D. 65.—“Ginger ( [Greek Text] ZiggiberiV) is a special kind of plant produced for the most part in Troglodytic Arabia, where they use the green plant in many ways, as we do rue ( [Greek Text] phganon), boiling it and mixing it with drinks and stews. The roots are small, like those of cyperus, whitish, and peppery to the taste and smell.…”—Dioscorides, ii. cap. 189.

c. A.D. 70.—“This pepper of all kinds is most biting and sharpe.…The blacke is more kindly and pleasant.…Many have taken Ginger (which some call Zimbiperi and others Zingiberi) for the root of that tree; but it is not so, although in tast it somewhat resembleth pepper.…A pound of Ginger is commonly sold at Rome for 6 deniers.…”—Pliny, by Ph. Holland, xii. 7.

c. 620–30.—“And therein shall they be given to drink a cup of wine, mixed with the water of Zenjebil.…”—The Koran, ch. lxxvi. (by Sale).

c. 940.—“Andalusia possesses considerable silver and quicksilver mines.…They export from it also saffron, and roots of ginger (?’aruk al-zanjabil).”—Mas’udi, i. 367.

1298.—“Good ginger (gengibre) also grows here (at Coilum—see QUILON), and it is known by the same name of Coilumin, after the country.”—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 22.

c. 1343.—“Giengiovo si è di piu maniere, cioe belledi (see COUNTRY), e colombino, e micchino, e detti nomi portano per le contrade, onde sono nati ispezialmente il colombino e il micchino, che primieramente il belledi nasce in molte contrade dell’ India, e il colombino nasce nel Isola del Colombo d’ India, ed ha la scorza sua piana, e delicata, e cenerognola; e il micchino viene dalle contrade del Mecca…e ragiona che il buono giengiovo dura buono 10 anni,” &c.—Pegolotti, in Della Decima, iii. 361.

c. 1420.—“His in regionibus (Malabar) gingiber oritur, quod belledi (see COUNTRY), gebeli et neli² vulgo appellatur. Radices sunt arborum duorum cubitorum altitudine, foliis magnis instar enulae (elecampane), duro cortice, veluti arundinum radices, quae fructum tegunt; ex eis extrahitur gingiber, quod immistum cineri, ad solemque expositum, triduo exsiccatur.”—N. Conti, in Poggio.

1580.—In a list of drugs sold at Ormuz we find Zenzeri da buli (presumably from Dabul.)
Zenzeri mordaci
Zenzeri Mecchini
Zenzeri beledi
Zenzero condito in giaga (preserved in Jaggery?)—Gasparo Balbi, f. 54.

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