Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.367

c10.367

Abul Fazl, in the Āīn, mentions that the fruit was also called kathal-i-safari, or ‘travel jack-fruit,’ “because young plants put into a vessel may be taken on travels and will yield fruits.” This seems a nonsensical pretext for the name, especially as another American fruit, the Guava, is sometimes known in Bengal as the *safari-ām*, or ‘travel mango.’ It has been suggested by one of the present writers that these cases may present an uncommon use of the word *safari* in the sense of ‘foreign’ or ‘outlandish,’ just as Clusius says of the pine-apple in India, “*peregrinus est hic fructus*,” and as we begin this article by speaking of the ananas as having ‘travelled’ from its home in S. America. In the *Tesoro* of Cobarruvias (1611) we find “*Çafari, cosa de Africa o Argel, como grenada*” (‘a thing from Africa or Algiers, such as a pomegranate’). And on turning to Dozy and Eng. we find that in Saracenic Spain a renowned kind of pomegranate was called *rommān safari*: though this was said to have its name from a certain Safar ibn-Obaid al Kilāī, who grew it first. One doubts here, and suspects some connection with the Indian terms, though the link is obscure. The lamented Prof. Blochmann, however, in a note on this suggestion, would not admit the possibility of the use of *safari* for ‘foreign.’ He called attention to the possible analogy of the Ar. *safarjal* for ‘quince.’ [Another suggestion may be hazarded. There is an Ar. word, *āsāfīriy*, which the dicts. define as ‘a kind of olive.’ Burton (*Ar. Nights*, iii. 79) translates this as ‘sparrow-olives,’ and says that they are so called because they attract sparrows (*āsāfīr*). It is perhaps possible that this name for a variety of olive may have been transferred to the pine-apple, and on reaching India, have been connected by a folk etymology with *safari* applied to ‘travelled’ fruit.] In Macassar, according to Crawfurd, the ananas is called Pandang, from its strong external resemblance, as regards fruit and leaves, to the *Pandanus*. Conversely we have called the latter screw-pine, or perhaps to the pine-cone, the original owner of the name. Acosta again (1578) describes the *Pandanus odoratissima* as the ‘wild ananas,’ and in Malayālam the pine-apple is called by a name meaning ‘pandanus-jack-fruit.’