Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9153

c10.9153

The N. Indian names are Ām and Amba, and variations of these we find in several of the older European writers. Thus Fr. Jordanus, who had been in the Konkan, and appreciated the progenitors of the Goa and Bombay Mango (c. 1328), calls the fruit *Aniba*. Some 30 years later John de' Marignolli calls the tree "*amburan*, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach" (*Cathay*, &c., ii. 362). Garcia de Orta shows how early the Bombay fruit was prized. He seems to have been the owner of the parent tree. The Skt. name is *Amra*, and this we find in Hwen T'sang (c. 645) phoneticised as *'An-mo-lo*.