榕樹英文 banya tree,是怎麼來的?


榕樹英文 banya tree是怎麼來的?


Banya 本來是印度古吉拉特語,意思是雜貨商或是商人,葡萄牙人就拿 Banya 來稱為印度商人,後來傳到英國,英國人觀察到,印度商人會在聚在某種樹下出售貨物,這種樹提供了印度商人良好的遮陰,這種樹就初稱為 banya tree,因此榕樹的英文名就這麼來了

在彰化,有一家雜貨店,是名付其實的 banya

資料來源 : 

The name was originally given to F. benghalensis and comes from India, where early travellers observed that the shade of the tree was frequented by Banyans (a corruption of Baniyas, a community of Indian traders).[12]
In the Gujarati languagebanya means "grocer or merchant", not "tree". The Portuguese picked up the word to refer specifically to Hindu merchants, and passed it along to the English as early as 1599 with the same meaning. By 1634, English writers began to tell of the banyan tree, a tree under which Hindu merchants conducted their business. The tree provided a shaded place for a village meeting or for merchants to sell their goods. Eventually, "banyan" became the name of the tree itself.[citation needed]

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