As a total layman, if I look up the origins of the English word “mango”, I find its first use in the 1500’s by Portuguese traders converting the Tamil word mankay.
The Chinese word for mango is “mang guo”, a cognate. What’s weird is that “guo” means roughly “fruit,” also used in “ping guo” for apple.
When I ask around if the original Portuguese translation came from the Chinese word, rhe common answer is no, and that’s the conspiracy.
I think the word has already transferred into Portuguese through Mandarin before its first recorded use, either through direct trade or via Arabic traders who also visited Mandarin speaking ports.
Because otherwise the match on the “guo” is just too coincidental.
My China related conspiracy theory:
As a total layman, if I look up the origins of the English word “mango”, I find its first use in the 1500’s by Portuguese traders converting the Tamil word mankay.
The Chinese word for mango is “mang guo”, a cognate. What’s weird is that “guo” means roughly “fruit,” also used in “ping guo” for apple.
When I ask around if the original Portuguese translation came from the Chinese word, rhe common answer is no, and that’s the conspiracy.
I think the word has already transferred into Portuguese through Mandarin before its first recorded use, either through direct trade or via Arabic traders who also visited Mandarin speaking ports.
Because otherwise the match on the “guo” is just too coincidental.
As far as I know, mang guo itself is a loanword
I think you might be right, but I give up on trying to link the damn articles.
It’s hard (apparently for me) to find English articles about Chinese etymology. Bunch of pdfs or translations of Chinese pages.
At the latest I saw claims Chinese adopted the “mang” term as late as the 1800’s.
Another said China adopted it at the same time as Portugal, during the 1500s southeast Asia trades.
Their first words referencing the fruit were in the 600’s but that was a completely different word.
I thought this would be an easy find… it’s simultaneously annoying and fascinating how tricky it is to get a clean answer.
Or I’m just dumb. Not claiming my research training is any good, but I Googled my damnedest.
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