חָצִיל (chatzil) — eggplant, aubergine
Etymology
The eggplant's path into Hebrew is a story of multiple uncertainties layered on top of each other: disputed origins of the plant itself, a complex chain of etymological transmission across six languages, rabbinic legal debates about whether the vegetable may be eaten, and a contested coinage process that produced several competing Hebrew forms before the current one was standardized.
The plant is believed to have been first domesticated in South India or South China in prehistoric times (a recent theory proposes Africa). It reached the Middle East from India during the second half of the first millennium CE. The Persians, who brought it westward, adapted the Sanskrit name vātigagama into the Persian bādengān. This passed into Arabic as bāḏingān, and it is by this name that medieval Jews first encountered the vegetable. The word then traveled through Arabic-speaking Europe: in Italy it was corrupted to melanzana (influenced by mela, "fruit"), in Catalonia the Arabic with the definite article al- produced albergínia, which French borrowed as aubergine and the English followed. American English's "eggplant" (18th century) comes from the fact that some white varieties resemble eggs. Turkish adopted the Arabic form as patlıcan, from which it spread into Slavic languages and into Yiddish as patlezhan.
Medieval rabbis debated whether the eggplant was permissible to eat. Rabbi Eshtori HaParchi (14th century, Palestine) ruled it forbidden on grounds of orlah. Rabbi David ibn Zimra said that black eggplants were forbidden but white ones permitted. The controversy continued: both the Chazon Ish (died 1953) and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (died 2013) ruled it permitted.
When Hebrew revivalists needed a name for the vegetable, Yechiel Michel Pines proposed in 1886 the bizarre "ביצת השטן" (Satan's egg), based on a folk etymology of bāḏingān as biḍ (eggs) + jān (demon). This was rejected. In 1897 Jerusalem editor Avraham Moshe Luncz proposed deriving a Hebrew form from the rare Arabic word ḥayṣal (an unidentified plant with an unknown etymology), suggesting the form חָצְל. David Yellin argued this form did not reflect the Arabic word's syllable structure and in 1899 proposed חֵיצָל (on the pattern of הֵיכָל). Both forms appeared in early twentieth-century dictionaries. In 1930, the Language Committee's botanical glossary "ילקוט צמחים," edited by Pesach Auerbach and Mordechai Azrachi, standardized the form חָצִיל — either because this was already the spoken form in Palestine or because it matched the Arabic ḥaṣīl (found in some old Arabic dictionaries meaning "a type of plant"). The Arabic root ח.צ.ל denotes growth, emergence, and yield, so the word may derive from ḥāṣal (produce, yield) or ḥawṣalah (a bird's crop), given the vegetable's shape.
Key Quotes
"ומתוך כך מסתברא לעניותינו, שהפרי הנאכל הרבה בארץ הצבי ובארץ אנדלוס ושמו אל באדנג'אן... שהם אסורות לעולם משום עורלה" — הרב אשתורי הפרחי, המאה ה-14
Timeline
- ~2nd c. CE: First written records of eggplant use in India and China
- ~7th–9th c.: Eggplant reaches the Middle East via Persia
- 10th–11th c.: Rabbis Hai Gaon and Hananel rule that blessing "bōrēʾ perī ha-adamah" is said over it
- 14th c.: Rabbi Eshtori HaParchi rules eggplant forbidden
- 1492: Eggplant reaches the Americas
- 1886: Pines proposes "ביצת השטן" in translation of German agricultural handbook
- 1897: Luncz proposes חָצְל based on rare Arabic חַיְצַל
- 1899: David Yellin proposes חֵיצָל in Ha-Melitz
- 1927: Form appears in Tur-Sinai/Lazar's German-Hebrew dictionary
- 1930: ועד הלשון standardizes the form חָצִיל in "ילקוט צמחים"
Related Words
- בַּאדִ׳נְגַ׳אן — Arabic name (from Persian בָּדֵנְגָן, from Sanskrit vātigagama)
- מְלַנְזָנָה — Italian form (influenced by mela, fruit)
- אַלְבֶּרְגִ׳ינִיָּה / אוֹבַּרְגִ׳ין — Catalan/French form (aubergine)
- פַּטְלִיקָן — Turkish form (→ Slavic → Yiddish פַּטְלֵזְשָׁן)
- חַיְצַל — rare Arabic word, etymological source of Hebrew חָצִיל