# Etymology of paradajz (Serbian)



## anastoj

Greetings to all!

I am curious about the origins of the word "paradajz", which means "tomato" in Serbian. Any info. would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

anastoj said:


> Greetings to all!
> 
> I am curious about the origins of the word "paradajz", which means "tomato" in Serbian. Any info. would be greatly appreciated...
> 
> Thanks!


 
I don't know about the origines of the Serbian word, but our word is "paradižnik". It is derived from the word "paradíž" what is a synonym of "raj" (heaven, paradise in English). Thus a fruit from the heaven. My wild guess is that the Serbian/Croatian(?) word "rajčica" is also from somewhere there.


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## werrr

In Czech, it's *rajské jablko* (or unformal *rajče*). The name was introduced by Kryštof Harant. He just translated the Italian *pomo del Paradiso*. According to Harant, the name refers to biblic:
_When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff 23  between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs._ (Numbers 13:23).


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## natasha2000

I've never thought of this! This is amazing.

A quick note:
Serbian language uses the word paradajz.
Croatian language uses the word rajčica.

Well it is, indeed, a fruit from paradise.

Cheers!
N.


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## Hegyi

anastoj said:


> Greetings to all!
> 
> I am curious about the origins of the word "paradajz", which means "tomato" in Serbian. Any info. would be greatly appreciated...
> 
> Thanks!



Hi!
sorry to be late--found this only now.  what has been said is quite right.  but:  in may opinion, diphthong <aj> points clearly to (Austrian) German origin.  tomato is in Vienna (etc.) <Paradeiser>, short for <Paradeisapfel>, i.e. apple of paradise; in Styria (Steiermark, Stajerska) etc. it's <Paradeis>, i.e. virtually the same as in Slovenian and Serbian.  <Paradeis> is the old Southern German / Austrian form of what is now generally <Paradies>, meaning paradise.  There is a lot more of Austrian German in these languages (including Croatian, etc.).

cheers, h.


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## OldAvatar

anastoj said:


> Greetings to all!
> 
> I am curious about the origins of the word "paradajz", which means "tomato" in Serbian. Any info. would be greatly appreciated...
> 
> Thanks!



I don't know the exact etymology, but it's interesting that Italians, also, use* pomodoro *for *tomato.*


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

OldAvatar said:


> I don't know the exact etymology, but it's interesting that Italians, also, use* pomodoro *for *tomato.*


Ethimology? It's a fruit (pomo) of (d') gold (oro).


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## Kriviq

werrr said:


> In Czech, it's *rajské jablko* (or unformal *rajče*). The name was introduced by Kryštof Harant. He just translated the Italian *pomo del Paradiso*. According to Harant, the name refers to biblic:
> _When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff 23 between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs._ (Numbers 13:23).



This thread puts me in deep thought There must be some mistake here! A pomegranate is not a tomato and that`s for sure. There can be no biblical connection since tomatoes were imported from America long after those times. 
In Bulgarian tomato is *домат*, pomegranate is *нар* and persimmon is *райска ябълка*.


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## Maroseika

Kriviq said:


> This thread puts me in deep thought There must be some mistake here! A pomegranate is not a tomato and that`s for sure. There can be no biblical connection since tomatoes were imported from America long after those times.
> In Bulgarian tomato is *домат*, pomegranate is *нар* and persimmon is *райска ябълка*.


Of course, tomatoes are not mentioned in the Bible, but paradise apples are. Different peoples explained what's exactly was meant, differently.
In Russian райские яблоки - tomatoes (obsolete) and tomato - помидор (obsolete etymology - pom d'amour).


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## Carrie2

Re the etymology of paradaijz, paradíž, paradise, Paradeis, Paradies, paradiso, etc., this is from the on-line version of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.askoxford.com):

*"ORIGIN Old French paradis, from Greek paradeisos ‘royal park’"*


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## el_tigre

Carrie2 said:


> Re the etymology of paradaijz, paradíž, paradise, Paradeis, Paradies, paradiso, etc., this is from the on-line version of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.askoxford.com):
> 
> *"ORIGIN Old French paradis, from Greek paradeisos ‘royal park’"*



I think that comes from *Latin* , not French!

Came from Austrian German


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## Frank06

Hi,



Carrie2 said:


> *"ORIGIN Old French paradis, from Greek paradeisos ‘royal park’"*


And to go back all the way: it ultimately comes from Avestan _pairidaeza-,_ “a wall enclosing a garden or orchard". The Greeks (Xenephon is mentioned in this respect) took the word but changed its meaning from 'wall enclosing a garden', to 'garden (enclosed by a wall)'. See here.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Carrie2

el_tigre said:


> I think that comes from *Latin* , not French!
> 
> Came from Austrian German


 
French, of course, developed from Latin. The word came into English through French, as did so many others.

Frank, great link, thank you! Very interesting.


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## Rajki

In Hungarian, both the mythical Paradise and "paradise-apple" (=tomato) are called paradicsom.

This is from Latin paradisum, the accusative of paradisus, a borrowing from Greek paradeisos.

The source of the Greek word is Hebrew pardes (=orchard), itself a borrowing from Old Persian.


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## sokol

As has been mentioned already, culturally the origin of this word lies in Austria.
(Of course, etymologies as given above are correct, so basically the word goes back to Avestan, as Frank established above, but got changed all over on its way to Europe.)

Austrian German is the ultimate source of the current distribution of the word "paradajz" (used in several varieties in many nations which once were part of the Habsburg Empire, and even in German "Paradeiser = tomato" only is used in Austria and unknown in Germany and Switzerland).

In German the name originally was coined for pomegrenades and only later was attributed to tomatoes (the former were known already in the Middle Ages while the latter only became popular during the 18th and 19th century) - and this only happened in the Habsburg Empire but not in the other German speaking nations.

Of course that's only the history of how it came that this term was coined for "tomatoe", and why it is distributed like that.
(Well - the fact that Croatia has another word might be seen as inconsistency, after all Croatia indeed was under Habsburg rule, and for a considerable time, while Serbia proper - within the boundaries of modern Serbia - never was except for Vojvodin. But it isn't really: Croatian is more purist than Serbian, loans have been replaced by calques - and "rajčica" clearly is a calque. )


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## Dequindre

The Romanians from Banat use the word "paradaisa" for tomato. Obviously, it comes from the word Paradise - via Austrian Empire who ruled nations like: Romanians, Serbians, Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnians, Hungarians, etc.


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## Abu Rashid

This word is originally Persian, is it not? It is borrowed into most languages of the Middle East from Persian.


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## Frank06

Abu Rashid said:


> This word is originally Persian, is it not? It is borrowed into most languages of the Middle East from Persian.


Avestan, even. See post #12.

Frank


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## sokol

Dequindre said:


> The Romanians from Banat use the word "paradaisa" for tomato. Obviously, it comes from the word Paradise - via Austrian Empire who ruled nations like: Romanians, Serbians, Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnians, Hungarians, etc.


Yes, certainly, we can safely assume that the Romanian word too is a "Habsburg monarchy word".  (Of course, as has been said, of Avestan origin but coined in this specific meaning in the Habsburg Empire.)


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