The Korean word for almond is 편도 (扁桃), which literally means flat (扁) peach (桃). Why a peach? Because an almond looks very much like the seed inside a peach pit. A 감편도 (甘扁桃) is a sweet (甘) almond (扁桃), which is the kind people normally eat since the bitter almond (苦扁桃 - 고편도) is toxic. Another name for almond is 감복승아, which literally means sweet (감 - 甘) peach (복승아). However, these days many Koreans seem to prefer to use the word 아몬드, which is just the Korean transliteration of the English word.
By the way, the Korean word for tonsils is 편도선 (扁桃腺), which literally translates as almond (扁桃) glands (腺). That is because tonsils supposedly look like almonds.
The etymology for the French word for tonsils (amygdales) is the Greek word for "almond". (The cerebral amygdala is another anatomical term.) I wonder if the Chinese/Korean term is a linguistic calque or just a case of convergent evolution.
ReplyDeleteGood comment. The Greek word for almond does not seem to have anything to do with "peaches," so maybe the Chinese first created their own descriptive word for "almond" and later formed their word for "tonsils" based on the Greek word.
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