The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Mad apple

Solanum melongena, Solanaceae, the nightshade family

The aubergine is native to tropical and subtropical Asia and the islands of the western Indian Ocean, by Kew’s account2; the American Heritage Dictionary says India3. Its glossy, usually egg-shaped fruits are chiefly purple, though they can be white, yellow or green3. The name aubergine came through French and Catalan from the Arabic al-bāḏinjān and the Persian bādenjān4.

The same Arabic word reached Italy, where it was reshaped as melanzana under the influence of mela, apple5. Heard as mela insana, it gave the Renaissance Latin malum insanum and the English mad apple6, a name English has also given to the thorn apple6.

John Gerard’s Herball of 1597 has a chapter “Of madde Apples”: in Latin Mala insana, in English “Madde Apples”7. The plant grew wild in the sandy fields of Egypt, he wrote, and in London gardens never ripened7. People in Toledo and in Egypt ate the fruit, but he advised the English to keep to their own food, for “doubtlesse these apples haue a mischeeuous qualitie”7. His next chapter is “Of apples of Loue”, the tomato7, the love apple of this guide.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Solanum melongena, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Solanum melongena, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "W. Indian Ocean, Trop. & Subtrop. Asia".
  3. eggplant, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: native to India; the glossy, usually ovoid fruits, chiefly purple but also white, yellow or green; the nightshade family.
  4. aubergine, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: the derivation through French and Catalan from Arabic al-bāḏinjān and Persian bādenjān.
  5. melanzana, Wiktionary. Supports: Italian melanzana from Arabic, from Persian, reshaped under the influence of mela, apple.
  6. mad apple, Wiktionary. Supports: mad apple as a calque of Renaissance Latin malum insanum, from melanzana reanalysed as mela insana; the senses eggplant, thorn apple and Dead Sea apple.
  7. The Herball, book 2, chapter 54: Of madde Apples, John Gerard, transcribed by the Source Library, The Nature Library, 1597. Supports: the names Melanzana, Mala insana and "Madde Apples"; the plant wild in the sandy fields of Egypt and never ripening in London; eaten in Toledo and Egypt; Gerard's warning that "these apples haue a mischeeuous qualitie"; the next chapter, Of apples of Loue.