Word
Where does Bungalow (the word) come from?
Bungalow comes from Hindi bangla, 'Bengali', short for a low, thatched 'house in the Bengal style'. English speakers in India were using it by the 1670s.
More Words
Word
Hurricane (the word)
📍 Caribbean (Taíno)
'Hurricane' is a Caribbean word: Spanish explorers borrowed huracán from the Taíno, an Arawakan-speaking people of the West Indies, and English took it from Spanish in the 1550s.
Word
Tomato (the word)
📍 Central Mexico
Spanish tomate comes from tomatl in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Italy only received its first tomatoes around 1548 and called them pomi d'oro, 'golden apples'.
Word
Toboggan (the word)
📍 Maritime Canada & Maine
Not Alpine at all: toboggan reached English in 1829 through Canadian French tabagane, from an Algonquian word for a sled, such as Mi'kmaq topaghan. These flat wooden sleds hauled loads across the snow.
More from Asia
Invention
Folding fan
📍 Kyoto–Nara, Japan
The folding fan was invented in Japan. In 988 a Japanese monk presented folding fans to the Chinese emperor, and the Chinese long called them 'Japanese fans'. Portuguese traders later brought them to Europe, where Spain made them famous.
Food
Cloves
📍 North Moluccas, Indonesia
Until colonial times, cloves grew only on a few small islands in Indonesia's Moluccas, the original “Spice Islands”, such as Ternate and Tidore. Chinese merchants sailed there to trade for them.
Food
Tofu
📍 China
Tofu comes from China. Legend credits Han-dynasty Prince Liu An with inventing it over 2,000 years ago, but the first clear written mention dates from around 965 AD. Japan's first record of it is from 1183.