Watermelons — Etymological Groupings

One of my favourite words to learn in other languages is “watermelon”. Not just because I like them, but also because there are so many distinct etymologies!

Here’s the basic vocabulary first, then I’ll group them by where the words come from, grouping them by etymology.

The Many Words for Watermelon

Below is a list of the many words for watermelon I’ve come across, grouped roughly by etymological root.

• Arabic: بطيخ baṭṭīkh
• Hebrew: אבטיח avatíakh
• Persian (Iran): هندوانه hendavāne / hendevune
• Hindi: तरबूज tarbūj
• Russian: арбуз arbúz
• Turkish: karpuz
• Italian: anguria, cocomero
• Spanish: sandía
• French: pastèque
• Portuguese (Brazil): melancia
• German: Wassermelone
• English: watermelon
• Chinese (Mandarin): 西瓜 xīguā
• Korean: 수박 subak
• Japanese: スイカ suika (kanji: 西瓜)
• Swahili: tikitimaji

1. Ancient Egyptian / Semitic baṭṭīkh group

Members here:

• Arabic: بطيخ baṭṭīkh (melon, often specifically watermelon)
• Hebrew: אבטיח avatíakh
• French: pastèque (via Portuguese pateca from Arabic baṭṭīḵa)

Modern research suggests the Semitic words (Hebrew avatiach, Arabic baṭṭīkh) may ultimately go back to an ancient Egyptian term for watermelon. From this Semitic base:

• Arabic develops baṭṭīkh / baṭṭīkha ‘melon, watermelon’.
• Hebrew adopts a related form avatíakh. The similar consonant skeleton b-ṭ-kh vs ʔ-v-ṭ-kh is why they sound alike.
• In medieval trade, Arabic baṭṭīkha is borrowed into (continental) Portuguese as pateca, and from there into French as pastèque. This sounds like a bit of a stretch, so here’s a source!

So Arabic and Hebrew words for watermelon look alike because they’re cousins, and French pastèque is a later “grandchild” of the same root.

2. “India / Sindh” group

These words don’t sound the same, but they have roots in words of the same meaning.

Members here:

• Persian: هندوانه hendavāne or hendunē
• Spanish: sandía

Persian hendavāne (or hendūne in colloquial Iranian/Tehrani Persian) literally means something like “Indian [fruit]”, from Hend ‘India’, reflecting that watermelons were associated with India or the Indus region.

Similarly, Spanish sandía comes from Andalusi Arabic سِندِيَّة sindiyya “(fruit) from Sindh”, ultimately from Sanskrit सिन्धु sindhu ‘Indus (river/region)’.

So Persian hendavāne and Spanish sandía are unrelated languages that both ended up using a “this is from India/Sindh” label for the same fruit.

3. Persian–Turkic–Slavic xarbuz / tarbuz / karpuz chain

The words in this group do sound the same, with a twist.

Members here:

• Hindi: तरबूज tarbūj
• Russian: арбуз arbúz
• Turkish: karpuz (similar to many other regional words)

The surprising thing is that this family originates from Persian, but that Persian later adopted a different colloquial word for watermelon.

Classical Persian had the word تربوز (tarbūz), which is no longer in common use.

Persian does currently have the word خربزه xarbizeh, which generically means ‘melon’, but these days is used to mean cantaloupe. This was the root that was adopted regionally into related variants: tarbūz in Dari (Afghan Persian), karpuz in Turkish, and арбуз (arbúz) in Russian.

Other regional Turkic and Slavic languages, or those with associations with the region (e.g. Mongolian, Polish), have similarly derived words for watermelon.

Hindi tarbūj is borrowed from Classical Persian tarbūz.

Russian арбуз arbúz

Russian арбуз came via Turkic (e.g. Turkish karpuz) from Persian xarbūza. (Wiktionary)
The consonant pattern xarbuz → karpuz → arbuz is still visible.

So Hindi tarbūj and Russian arbuz are distant cousins via Persian trade vocabulary filtered through Turkic.

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4. “Melon / cucumber” family (European words)

Members here:

• English: watermelon
• German: Wassermelone
• Italian: anguria, cocomero
• Portuguese (Brazil): melancia
• (Spanish melón de agua, French melon d’eau as minor variants)

English & German: transparent compounds

• English watermelon and German Wassermelone are straightforward compounds: “water + melon”.
• The melon part is an old Mediterranean loan: from Greek μηλοπέπων mēlopepōn ‘apple-shaped melon’ via Latin into the European languages. (Wikipedia)

So English and German are obviously related here: same loanword melon, different local word for water.

Italian: anguria and cocomero

• cocomero < Latin cucumerem ‘cucumber’. Over time in standard Italian it shifted to mean watermelon, while still meaning ‘cucumber’ in some northern dialects. (languagehat.com)
• anguria goes back to Byzantine Greek ἀγγούριον aggourion, again originally ‘cucumber’; in Italian it settled on ‘watermelon’. (Turismo Roma)

So Italian uses two old “cucumber” words that got reassigned to the bigger melon.

Portuguese (Brazil): melancia

Portuguese melancia is an alteration of older balancia ‘watermelon’, itself likely from Arabic balansiyy “Valencian” (so literally ‘Valencian melon’), remodelled under the influence of melão ‘melon’. (Wiktionary)

So it’s a geo-label (“Valencian”) + the general Romance “melon” word, mashed together.

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5. East Asian “western melon” / “water gourd” group

Members here:

• Chinese: 西瓜 xīguā
• Japanese: スイカ suika (西瓜)
• Korean: 수박 subak (plus 서과 seogwa ‘west melon’) (Wiktionary)

Chinese 西瓜 xīguā

Literally “west melon” (西 ‘west’ + 瓜 ‘melon/gourd’). Watermelons entered China from the “Western Regions” along Silk Road routes, hence the name. (Wiktionary)

Japanese スイカ suika

Written with the same characters 西瓜, but read suika. The reading is based on a Sino-Japanese borrowing of the Chinese pronunciation from a later period (a so-called 唐宋音 reading). (Japanese Language Stack Exchange)

So Chinese and Japanese literally share the same characters and concept “west melon”; the sounds differ because each language adapted the Chinese word at different times in its own phonology.

Korean 수박 subak

Korean 수박 subak goes back to Middle Korean syu + pak ‘water + gourd’. (Wiktionary)
There’s also a learned synonym 서과 seogwa which directly corresponds to Chinese 西瓜 ‘west melon’. (Wiktionary)

So in East Asia you get:

• A “west melon” pattern (Chinese & Japanese, and Korean 서과), and
• A “water gourd/melon” pattern (Korean 수박), semantically very close to English/German watermel(on).

That’s why Chinese, Japanese, and Korean feel related here: they’re all built out of the same semantic pieces (west / water + melon/gourd) and partially share Chinese characters.