|
Cardamom (), sometimes called cardamon (mostly in the UK), is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India, the largest producer until the late 20th century; Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Nepal, and Pakistan. They are recognised by their small seed pods, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin, papery outer shell and small black seeds. The German coffee planter Oscar Majus Kloeffer introduced Indian cardamom to cultivation in Guatemala before World War I; by 2000 that country had become the biggest producer and exporter of cardamom in the world, followed by India.〔(Shenoy Karun, Kerala cardamom trying to fight off its Guatemalan cousin", ''The Times of India'', 21 April 2014 ); accessed 25 July 23014.〕 Some other countries, such as Sri Lanka, have also begun to cultivate it. ''Elettaria'' pods are light green, while ''Amomum'' pods are larger and dark brown. It is the world's third-most expensive spice, surpassed in price per weight only by vanilla and saffron. ==Etymology== The word "cardamom" is derived from the Latin ''cardamomum'', which is the Latinisation of the Greek (''kardamomon''), a compound of (''kardamon''), "cress" + (''amomon''), which was probably the name for a kind of Indian spice plant. The earliest attested form of the word κάρδαμον signifying ''cress'' is the Mycenaean Greek ''ka-da-mi-ja'', written in Linear B syllabic script,〔("ka-da-mi-ja" ) at Palaeolexicon〕 in the list of flavourings on the "Spice" tablets found among palace archives in the House of the Sphinxes in Mycenae. The modern genus name ''Elettaria'' is derived from the local name. The root ''ēlam'' is attested in all Dravidian languages viz. Kannada ''elakki'' (), Telugu ''yelakulu'' (), Tamil ''elakkai'' () and Malayalam ''elakkay'' (). The second element ''kai'' means "seed" or "fruit". The Malabar region had historical trade connections and was a prominent area of cardamom cultivation. A related root is also present in Hindi ''ilaychi'' (), Bengali ''ælachi'' () and Punjabi ''ilaichi'' () "green cardamom". In Sanskrit it was known as ''ela'' () or ''ellka'' (). In Marathi it is commonly known as ''Velchi'' () or ''Veldoda'' ()〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=cardamom - translation - English-Marathi Dictionary - Glosbe )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cardamom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|