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• Haven't been to any Italian restaurants lately? (Score:1)

  by vsergu (505)

  Don't forget melanzana (from mala insana, "mad apple").
  • Mela Insana (Score:1)

    by jdporter (36) on 2002.07.23 9:29 (#10962) Homepage Journal

    Yeah. I was doing up some eggplant on the grill last night, and, looking for something interesting to do with it, broke out Jeff Smith's Three Ancient Cuisines... He states rather blithely that the origin is mela insana, "bad apple", which supposedly ties in with the ancient (western) belief that the vegetable is poisonous.
    
    We know, of course, that that derivation is spurious.
    
    But it does lead to a question of what insana means. Does it mean mad or bad? (bad, in this case, not having its moral connotation, but more along the lines of rotten or unhealthy.) I would think that bad is just, if we consider the connection to sanatarium and sanitation.
    

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    • Re:Mela Insana (Score:2)

      by vsergu (505)

      Of course sanitarium/sanitorium sometimes refers to institutions dealing with mental rather than physical health also, so it parallels the different meanings of insana.