PoPBunka! 英会話 浜松市 カルチャースクール浜松

A student asked me the other day about the vegetable called 'eggplant'.
先日、ある生徒が、エッグプラントという野菜のことを尋ねました。

She asked me why the vegetable 'nasu' in Japanese is called 'eggplant' in English.
彼女は、なぜ日本語でいう「茄子」は、なぜ「エッグ（卵）プラント（植物）」というのか、と質問しました。

I had no answer so I checked it out and now I understand.
僕はどうしてかその答えが分からなかったので、調べて、やっと今わかるんです。

The word 'eggplant' started being used in America in the 18th Century.
エッグプラントという言葉は、18世紀アメリカで使われはじめました。

It was used to describe a special type of eggplant vegetable that was grown there.
現地で栽培されていた、特殊な種類の茄子を言い表すのに使われていました。

This type of eggplant vegetable originally had a vanilla white coloured skin.
この種類の茄子はもともとバニラホワイト色の皮がついていたんです。

You can see it in the picture below.
下の写真でご覧頂けます。

The purple ones are the regular type but the white ones really do look like eggs.

Today, most eggplants are purple and the white ones are very rare.

So the reason they are called eggplants is because they used to look almost exactly like eggs.

Did you know that China, India, and Egypt grow about 85% of the worlds eggplants?

No? I didn't know that either.

Another interesting fact is that eggplants have nicotine in them.

Just like tobacco but at a much lower concentration!

In fact, 9kg of eggplants have about the same amount of nicotine as 1 cigarette.

But don't worry... you probably can't eat enough of them to cause cancer.

This is a picture of a white coloured eggplant.

Maybe this chicken is jealous...