Mango
/ˈmæŋ.ɡoʊ/noun
The tropical fruit of the mango tree, with sweet orange-yellow flesh and a large flat pit.
Did you know?English mango comes through Portuguese and probably Malayalam, and its spread into Europe is tied to the age of trade routes that moved not just spices, but names with them.
Etymological Timeline
Dravidian / South Asian
Proto-Dravidian
*māṅgai / *māṅkay
“Likely an ancestral form referring to the mango fruit”
16th Century
Portuguese
manga
“Mango; the fruit as borrowed from South Asian trade contact”
16th Century
English
mango
“The tropical fruit, borrowed from Portuguese”
Modern English
English
mango
“The familiar tropical fruit”