Kombucha

[Benjamin Barrett]

The Wikipedia article on kombucha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha) says that the word was first recorded in 1995, citing: Algeo, John and Adele Algeo (1997), "Among the New Words," American Speech 72.2: 183-197.

Google Books claims a 1923 citation in _Ars Medici_ at http://ow.ly/bJ0N8, but it can't be seen. If it's the same as http://ow.ly/bJ0PA of 1928, then it may be about a fungus.

The next earliest citation I see is 1927 (http://ow.ly/bJ0Wh). It appears to be titled _Chemistry Research: The Production of Formaldehyde by Oxidation of Hydrocarbons_. The citation is: 'In the "Kombucha" fermentation, which consists in the fermentation of China tea sweetened with sucrose by a mixture of Bact. gluconicum, Bact. xylinum and Bact. xylinoides, the inversion takes place before the dehyddrogenation to gluconic acid.' The next sentence includes the names Hermann and Neuschul, perhaps German scientists; there are earlier German citations for "kombucha."

Also worthy of note is a 1928 citation at http://ow.ly/bJ14U.

The OED does not include kombucha, though the AHD (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kombucha) and Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kombucha) have it.

The earliest possible citation I see for "konbucha," a possible Romanization, is 1998 (http://ow.ly/bJ1av).

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA
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