[An-lang] Melinjo, emping, gnetum

[James Rader]

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.



The words are

1)     *melinjo  *"a gnetum tree (*Gnetum gnemon*) of Southeast Asia that
has glossy leaves used in cooking and bitter nutlike seeds used especially
to make emping"

2)     *emping**  "*a slightly bitter cracker or chip popular in Indonesia
that is made from the dried flattened seed of a melinjo tree (*Gnetum
gnemon*)"

3)     *gnetum*  "any of a genus (*Gnetum *of the family Gnetaceae) of
small tropical trees and woody vines that are gymnosperms with glossy
elliptical leaves and fleshy ovoid seeds"



The Indonesian dictionary of Stevens and Schmidgall-Tellings has *pohon
belinjo *as "tree with edible seeds, *Gnetum gnemon.*" There are
cross-references to this from *malinjo, melinjo, mlinjo *and *meninjau.* Is
one of these forms primary and the others derived? Does *melinjo *have an
ulterior etymology, or is this sort of unknowable?



The word *emping *or *krupuk emping *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 (= *mlinjo*) made from
the meat of the seed of old *mlinjo, Gnetum gnemon.*" Again, I'm curious as
to any ulterior etymology of *emping.*



The earliest documentation of both the *melinjo *and *gnetum *etyma appears
to be *Herbarium amboinense *(Amsterdam, 1741), 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 "*op Maleyts, Baleys, en Bandaas *Meninjo *en *Maninjo : *in
Ternaten ende de omleggende eylanden* Gnemon, *en *Gnemo : *op Amboins*
Utta Soä : *op Macassers *Culang, *of eygentlyk *Cylang Bantam : *dog de
Javanen noemen den boom *Soo, *en de vrugt *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 *gnemon, gnemo *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, *A Descriptive Study of the Language of Ternate, the Northern
Moluccas, Indonesia, *a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University
of Pittsburgh in 2001--the author records the word as *ganem *"kind of
tree *Gnetum
gnemon L *(Malay *sej. pohon*)." According to the author, "many Ternatean
words have two variants, with or without the word final high vowel."
Judging by Rumpf's *gnemon/gnemo*, recorded in the seventeenth century, he
doesn't seem to have heard the first vowel at all, and recorded the final
vowel as *o *rather than *u, *with or without a nasal coda.



The Latin genus name *Gnetum *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 *gnemon *into *Gnetum,* though
exactly how is unclear.


My thanks for any etymological suggestions that list members might have.


--Jim Rader

Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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