<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I have questions about
some words of Indonesian cultural origin that have recently appeared in English
publications. The immediate source of these words is relatively clear, while
their further etymologies are not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The words are</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 21pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">1)<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman"">
</span></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">melinjo </span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"a gnetum tree (<i>Gnetum
gnemon</i>) of Southeast Asia that has glossy leaves used in cooking and bitter
nutlike seeds used especially to make emping"</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 21pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">2)<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">emping</span></i><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> "</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">a slightly bitter cracker or chip popular in
Indonesia that is made from the dried flattened seed of a melinjo tree (</span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Gnetum gnemon</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">)"</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 21pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">3)<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">gnetum</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> "any
of a genus (<i>Gnetum </i>of the family Gnetaceae) of small tropical trees and
woody vines that are gymnosperms with glossy elliptical leaves and fleshy ovoid
seeds"</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Indonesian dictionary
of Stevens and Schmidgall-Tellings has <i>pohon belinjo </i>as "tree with
edible seeds, <i>Gnetum gnemon.</i>" There are cross-references to this
from <i>malinjo, melinjo, mlinjo </i>and <i>meninjau.</i> Is one of these forms
primary and the others derived? Does <i>melinjo </i>have an ulterior etymology,
or is this sort of unknowable?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The word <i>emping </i>or
<i>krupuk emping </i>is defined by Stevens and Schmidgall-Tellings as "a
crisp chip resembling a potato chip, made from young rice plants, pounded flat,
dried and fried or (= <i>mlinjo</i>) made from the meat of the seed of old <i>mlinjo,
Gnetum gnemon.</i>" Again, I'm curious as to any ulterior etymology of <i>emping.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The earliest
documentation of both the <i>melinjo </i>and <i>gnetum </i>etyma appears to be <i>Herbarium
amboinense </i>(Amsterdam, 1741),<i> </i>the posthumously published work of the
botanist Georg Eberhard Rumpf or Rumphius (1627-1702). Rumpf gives vernacular names for plants in
both Latin and Dutch, the text being written in parallel Latin-Dutch columns. In
a chapter devoted to the plant, Rumpf has "<i>op Maleyts, Baleys, en
Bandaas </i>Meninjo <i>en </i>Maninjo : <i>in Ternaten ende de omleggende
eylanden</i> Gnemon, <i>en </i>Gnemo : <i>op Amboins</i> Utta Soä : <i>op
Macassers </i>Culang, <i>of eygentlyk </i>Cylang Bantam : <i>dog de Javanen
noemen den boom </i>Soo, <i>en de vrugt </i>Medinjo." I assume
"Maleyts" is Ambonese Malay, unless "Amboins" refers to Ambonese
Malay. "Baleys" is perhaps Balinese? "Bandaas" ("Bandanicus"
in the Latin version) is presumably Banda/Bandanese. The language used "on
Ternate and the adjacent islands," from which the forms <i>gnemon, gnemo </i>derive,
is presumably the non-Austronesian Ternate language (unless this word was taken
up by Ternate Malay). This origin would seem to be confirmed by a word list in
Rika Hayami-Allen, <i>A Descriptive Study of the Language of Ternate, the
Northern Moluccas, Indonesia, </i>a doctoral dissertation submitted to the
University of Pittsburgh in 2001--the author records the word as <i>ganem </i>"kind
of tree <i>Gnetum gnemon L </i>(Malay <i>sej. pohon</i>)." According to
the author, "many Ternatean words have two variants, with or without the
word final high vowel." Judging by Rumpf's <i>gnemon/gnemo</i>, recorded in
the seventeenth century, he doesn't seem to have heard the first vowel at all,
and recorded the final vowel as <i>o </i>rather than <i>u, </i>with or without
a nasal coda.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Latin genus name <i>Gnetum
</i>is the invention of Carl Linnaeus, who published a description of the plant
based on Rumpf's description. He appears to have turned the vernacular word <i>gnemon
</i>into <i>Gnetum,</i> though exactly how is unclear.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">My thanks for any
etymological suggestions that list members might have.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">--Jim Rader</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Merriam-Webster, Inc.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </span></p></div>