Re: Henna, by any other name......

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on January 25, 2000 at 16:10:33:

In Reply to: Henna, by any other name...... posted by Michelle on January 25, 2000 at 13:59:41:

One note: the words based on "Rang" have to do with indigo, rather
than henna.

Henna is a tough one to track down!
It's most difficult and confusing before 1000 BCE, especially as many
authors are in agreement over which plant was which ... complicated by
the fact that henna has different uses and appearances from a small
cropped bush for dye, to a 25 foot tree valued for flowers and
perfume.

Earliest:
Ugaritic: kpr, before 2100 BCE
Canaanite: kna, (meaning "red" )after 1500 BCE
Ancient Greek: kupros, and later kene or kna
Ancient Egyptian: puker
Nubian: khofreh
Hebrew: chna, later henna
Biblical: camphire, possibly also camphor and cyprus

by 600 C.E. the Arabic standard word henna and variants spread across
the world of Islam giving:
Povence France: quene
Arabic variations: alcanna, Al-hinna, Chinne, Hina, Khanna,
tamra-henni,

Then, when it gets into India, it gets really complicated! There are
many languages and dialects in India ... many of which use a word for
henna that is very near the Persian medieval word for "night of the
henna" ... some variant of "mehandi". Though henna was certainly
used in India long before the medieval period, it looks to me as
though the "Night of the henna" tradition was imported into NW
India from Persia during that time, and that word with it. All the
pronunciations are a little different, and they are all equally
correct. Before 1960, the spelling "mehndi" did not appear in
publication ... there various spellings were mehendi, mehandi,
mayhendhie, mendeed, menhadi, .... there's many more, its a really
long list! When the spelling mehndi first appeared in
transliterations, there was a little 0 over the n, indicating that
there is supposed to be a slight aspiration or syllable between the h
and the n . However, either American editors chose to ignore the
aspiration, or it was too much of a bother to try to stick it in there
.... in any case, between 1995 and 1999, the middle syllable has been
dropped as far as most English speakers are concerned. Americans, in
particular, have no clue at all that there are many, many variations
across India in the pronunciation of the word for henna.

Follow-ups:

• and the Malays call it .... Jewel 17:32:22 1/25/00 (4)
  • Re: and in French, it's henne Kenzi 22:51:41 1/25/00 (3)
    • En espñnol... Amy L. 05:05:33 1/29/00 (0)
    • Re: and in French, it's henne Amy L. 05:01:44 1/29/00 (0)
    • Re: and in French, it's henne Claire 20:36:47 1/26/00 (0)