Another excellent article! I have nothing that I could possibly add to this, save to note that the BDB does suggest a Malaysian origin: kainamanis (acc. to Rödiger), from kayu manis (acc. to Lewy), or just kayu (acc. to Scott).
BDB p 890 n.m cinnamon (prob. foreign wd., coming with the thing from remote E., cf M'Lean-ThDyer Ency Bib. s v. cp with Malay kainamanis by Rod, etc - too hard to transliterate in this small window:( glad it is used in the Song
see also Lewy Fremdw, Scott Mal words in Eng. JAOS xvii, xviii (1896, 1897) against LAG BN 199, Houghton Tr Simth DB, Post Hastings DB
horrible apparatus - how much this data needed a data base analyst and on line capacity!
(Phil, but not Philologos)
Reading about the possible Chinese connection with cinnamon, I recalled a book I glanced at once. I can't recommend this book, but I thought you should at least know of its existence:
The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language
by C. H. Kang and Ethel Nelson
Thanks for all the effort and for sharing it, your blog is the one I enjoy the most, by far!
Glad you all enjoyed it. Nice to be back writing again.
One problem with the derivation of [i]kinnamon[/i] from China, though, is that China is named after the Qin dynasty, which came to power in the 3rd century BCE. This is a good thousand years after the Torah was written.
In Norway @ is called "kanel-bolle" after the form of cinnamon
Dave-
Thank you, for this very exhaustive post on the etymology of the word Cinnamon. Shemot 30:23 refers to this as one of the three chief spices. Your presupposition seems, reasonable, that this name was known in distant lands. Alluded to by the references to distant trade in spices in both the Hebrew and Latin canons of the Bible: ‘To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet [cane] from a far country?’ (Jer 6:20a) and ‘And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more...The merchandise of gold,...And [cinnamon*], and odours, and ointments, and frankincense...-Rev 18:11-13
*Strong’s dictionary trace: Greek 792. kinamomon, kin-am'-o-mon; of for. or. [comp. Heb 7076]; cinnamon:-cinnamon.
fragrant cinnamon
(Rashi; Septuagint; Abarbanel, Canela in Spanish; Ibn Janach; Rambam on Kerithoth 1:1, but see Ramban on Exodus 30:34). Kinman in Hebrew. This is the dried bark of the cinnamon tree, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, a species of laurel cultivated mainly in Ceylon (cf. Yad, Kley HaMikdash 1:3; cf. Theophrastus, Plants 9:7; Herodatus 3:111). According to others, however, the kinman of the Bible is aloeswood or lignum aloes (Radak, Sherashim; cf. Saadia; see Ramban on Exodus 30:34). This is the resinous hartwood, Aquilaria agallocha of the family Thymalaeaceae, which grows in the East Indies and tropical Southeast Asia, and is still used for incense and perfumes. According to other ancient sources, the 'cinnamon' of antiquity was not the Ceylonese product, but an herb coming from Arabia (Theophrastus, History of Plants 9:4; Strabo 16:778; Diodorus Sicculus 2:49, 3:46) or Ethiopia (Pliny 12:42). Some identify it with 'Mecca Straw' (paja de Mecca in old Spanish; Ramban; Abarbanel), which was used as fodder for camels (Shir HaShirim Rabbah on Exodus 4:4). There are also indications that the 'cinnamon' of antiquity grew in the Holy Land (Yerushalmi, Peah 7:4; Bereshith Rabbah 65:17; see Kaftor Va Pherach 10, 31a).
http://bible.ort.org/books/
torah...ortion=21#C1799
In an article on cinnamon in the Encyclopedia Judaica reference is made to the synonym Cassia (Ps. 45:9)and it is associated with the Chinese word kuei-chih (in Latin Cassia). Interestingly, this article alluded to that cinnamon's origin is shrouded in mystery. It was said to have been produced by the fabulous Phoenix (II Bar. 6:13). But the aggadah declares that cinnamon was grown in eretz Yis'roel. (ref. Vol. 5, page 566-67) The above article also reference the following: Rahabah said in R. Judah's name: The [fuel] logs of Jerusalem were of the cinnamon tree, and when lit their fragrance pervaded the whole of Eretz Israel. But when Jerusalem was destroyed they were hidden, only as much as a barley grain being left, which is to be found in the queen's collections of rarities. -Talmud Bavli, Berakhoth 63a
Thus maybe the word qinnamon originated in the Torah after-all.
I lived in Eastern India for several years and can report that in the Oriya language the word for cinnamon is "Dalchini" (same in Hindi). While this may be as Cooley suggests - "Chinese Wood" - I sincerely doubt it.
For starters, as mentioned above, the Qin dynasty is from the 3rd century BCE. Also, the word "Chini" in Oriya and Hindi means "Sugar" and cinnamon is considered to be sweet and spicy. (I don't know what the "Dal" part means. Anyone?)
BTW - I know this does not prove anything, but Chini sounds a little like "Kaneh" to me. The fact that Jeremiah 6:20 calls it "Kaneh HaTov" could perhaps mean that he was referring to sugar cane and not cinammon.
Please note that Cinnamon and Sugar are widely grown in South Asia. A quick online search shows that many believe that both originated there and NOT in China. It grows widely in Orissa to this day.
I would also like to point out that historical records and archaeological research show that there were Greek and Roman colonies in India in antiquity. In fact, more Roman finds have been found on the Eastern shore of India than along the Western. Including several important ones in Orissa - e.g. Palur and Manikapatna.
While this may seem surprising as it is farther from the Mediterranean it makes sense if you are thinking of the Indian Ocean as a whole and were looking for a centrally located staging area to access goods from as far away as China and Indonesia.
When I first started researching this post (a number of weeks ago), I noticed the issue with the Qin dynasty. I guess I forgot about it when I wrote the post - but thank you all for reminding me :)
I might have found an answer. From this site:
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/
Indi...a_and_China.htm
"According to French art historian, Rene Grousset, the name China comes from "an ancient" Sanskrit name for the regions to the east, and not, as often supposed, from the name of the state of Ch'in," the first dynasty established by Shih Huang Ti in 221 B.C. The Sanskrit name Cina for China could have been derived from the small state of that name in Chan-si in the northwest of China, which flourished in the fourth century B.C. Scholars have pointed out that the Chinese word for lion, shih, used long before the Chin dynasty, was derived from the Sanskrit word, simha, and that the Greek word for China, Tzinista, used by some later writers, appears to be derivative of the Sanskrit Chinasthana."
Convincing? You tell me...
I like the idea of China (Sin) being from Simha (Lion). It is plausible and would certainly make my Hare Krishna friends (who believe that everything has Vedic roots) happy.
There are some problems - Chan Shih was a small state that existed in the 4th century BC - long after the Torah was written. As for "Tzinista" it was apparently first mentioned by the Alexandrian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes in his work "Topographia Christiana" from 547 A.D.
In any case, this is all based on the idea that cinnamon came from China - something that I don't think has been definitively established. According to this site: http://www.indepthinfo.com/cinna...n/
history.shtml (and others) it is originally from Sri Lanka or Ceylon.
The word Ceylon is also a corruption of Sinhala which comes from Simha or Lion.
I have another objection. According to my dictionary (Alcalay), the Modern Hebrew word for China, Sin, is the same as (derives from?) the Biblical name of a district in Egypt. What is the actual origin of "Sin"? Is it cognate with Kina, China, Chine, etc.? If so, this would be evidence against kinamon = "Chinese spice," wouldn't it? We'd expect sinamon.
I refer Isaac M and others to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Nam...Chinese_records.
(Fascinating post, BTW.)
I'm an Arabist with some meager Hebrew but am chiming in here on the Sin/Chin/Kina question. (Not an expert, but my daughter's Chinese.) As far as I know all these terms, including our "China" stem from the Chin Dynasty that began about 250 BCE. The question would be whether any of the "cinnamon" forms predate that era, which would seem to rule out their connection with China if they do. Not sure what the current scholarship is on dating Song of Solomon and some other cites in this conversation, but I'd be surprised if "kin" connected to China before the first Emperor of Chin, in the mid 3rd century BC. Chinese specialists please correct me if I'm wrong.
You'd be hard pressed to find even the most minimalist of academics claiming that all of the bible texts in question were later than 250 BCE (excl. some editing). Altogether, the China theory still seems largely difficult.
Well, as I mentioned above, 250 BCE is not the earliest date offered for the name China. Another source is Nicholas Olster's excellent book "Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World."
In a footnote on page 137, he writes about the Qin state (which was founded in 221 BCE):
"This is often proposed as the etymology for the name China, a name that seems to have reached the west through Persian and Italian. But the Chinese use the names of the Han or Tang dynasties as the name of their nation, and the form of the name suggests that it is derived from the Sanskrit name Cina. This applied mainly to the area of Tibet, though on occasions also included Assam and Burma (Sircar 1971: 104-5)."
Since cinnamon came via India, it doesn't seem so far-fetched that the word could have Sanskrit origins.
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