mango

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese manga,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded in Portuguese from the early 16th century, and probably from Malayalam മാങ്ങ (māṅṅa),^[2][8][9][1] or from a kindred Dravidian word.^[9][10] Other dictionaries trace it to Tamil மாங்காய் (māṅkāy),^{[7][11][12][6][1]} a compound of the words for the mango tree and for fruit.^{[7][13][14][3]} Barnhart, Hoad, Skeat and the Shorter Oxford put Malay mangga between the Dravidian word and the Portuguese one,^{[4][5][11][14]} and Etymonline names both the Malay and the Tamil forms.^[3] Hobson-Jobson argued instead that the word, with the fruit, was brought into the Malay Archipelago from southern India, since the Portuguese form is already used by Varthema, who did not go beyond Malabar; a note in the same work by Skeat holds that the Portuguese probably took the standard Malay form.^[7] The OED finds the first record in any European language in Varthema's Italian account of Calicut (1510), as Italian manga, and compares Middle French manga (1540) and French mangue.^[2] The origin of the English ending -o is not clear;^[2] according to the OED, Dutch mango and mango in Spanish are from English,^[2] while Hoad takes the later English form from the Dutch.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit of the mango tree: 1582, as manga and mangas, in N. Lichefield's translation of F. L. de Castanheda's history of the Portuguese in India.^{[2][4][14][5]} The spelling mango is recorded from 1681.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The tree itself is named from 1678 in the OED, by the 1670s in Etymonline.^[2][3] Because the fruit reached England mostly pickled, mango was used from 1679 for a pickle like that made of green mangoes, later for whole fruits stuffed with spices and pickled,^[2] and in 1728 there was even a verb to mango, to pickle in that way.^[2] Johnson (1755), who derived it from French mangostan, still described it as a fruit of Java "brought to Europe pickled".^[15] Mango trees were brought from Timor to British gardens in Jamaica and Saint Vincent by Captain Bligh in 1793.^[3] In American use the name passed to a muskmelon (1866), the mango melon, and in some regions to a green bell pepper (1948).^[2] It also names tropical American hummingbirds (1812) and a colour, the green of the unripe rind or the yellowish red of the flesh (1930).^[2] In New Zealand slang a mango is a fifty-dollar note, which is orange like the fruit.^[16]

Timeline

• 1510 – Italian manga, in Varthema's account of Calicut, the first record in a European language.^[2]
• 1582 – the fruit, as manga or mangas.^[2][4]
• 1678 – the tree.^[2]
• 1679 – a pickle of green mangoes or a similar pickle.^[2]
• 1681 – the form mango.^[4]
• 1728 – verb, to pickle like green mangoes (obsolete).^[2]
• 1793 – mango trees brought to Jamaica and Saint Vincent by Bligh.^[3]
• 1812 – a tropical American hummingbird.^[2]
• 1866 – in the United States, a muskmelon.^[2]
• 1930 – a greenish or yellowish-red colour.^[2]
• 1948 – in American regional use, a green bell pepper.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The oval tropical fruit of an Asian tree, with a smooth rind, a large stone and sweet, juicy orange-yellow flesh: a bowl of sliced mango.^[17][6][2]
2. The evergreen tree that bears it, Mangifera indica, native to India and Myanmar.^[17][2]
3. (US regional) A green bell pepper.^[2]
4. Any of several tropical American hummingbirds.^[2]

Related words

• mangosteen

Usage notes

The OED also records an obsolete noun mango, a dealer in slaves, especially in prostitutes (1602–1658, first in Ben Jonson's Poetaster), from Latin mangō (“a dealer in slaves or other goods”),^[2] and an Irish mango of 1870, a substance used in bleaching linen, perhaps from mangle.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins