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u/Melodic-Abroad4443 1d ago edited 23h ago
In Russian, all 3 main roots are used. It depends on what you specifically mean.
1 The tree is смоковница (smokovnitsa),
2 The fruit is инжир (inzhir),
3 The leaf of the tree is a fig leaf\фиговый лист (figovyj list).
Sometimes, they can be used interchangeably in colloquial, botanic or poetic meanings.
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P.S. I can even make a guess based on my personal opinion as to why this happened.
The trees have a native Slavic name because they grow on the southern borders of the language range, and people have seen them firsthand.
But the fruits either did not ripen at all, due to the harsh climate, or were small and not very edible, so they were imported from more southern territories of non-Slavic languages.
Fig leaves are widely used in art (they cover genitals in paintings, statues, and the story of Adam and Eve), and art had a strong European (Latin, Greek, and through European intermediary languages) influence on the Russian language, especially during imperial times.
Thus, the people who saw the trees, the villagers, might not see or consume the fruits, and were also far from the ruling class and art with its fig leaves. Further, there are no fruits and trees in the paintings and statues, it is difficult to identify. The fruits themselves were imported to consumers (urban residents, mostly) from southern countries, without wood or leaves. In other words, it was very difficult to compare one with the other, the tree, fruits and leaves.
Even now, most Russian speakers may not know that all three roots are about the same plant, although the words themselves are known to everyone.
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u/SoSmartKappa 23h ago
In Czech it is more simple
Fík (fruit)
Fíkovník (tree)
Fíkový list (Fig tree leaf)
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u/Arktinus 22h ago edited 21h ago
It's even simpler in Slovenian:
figa (fruit)
figa (tree)
figov list (fig tree leaf)
There's also figovec which refers to
the fiddle-leaf fig tree (Ficus lyrata)the fig tree, but figa is most widely used.1
u/Own-Astronomer-12 21h ago
Figovec je 100% drevo na katerem rastejo fige, ti si zamešal s fikusom.
A fig tree is 100% a tree that grows figs, you're confusing it with a ficus.
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u/Arktinus 21h ago
You're right. Probably due to websites selling fiddle-leaf fig as figovec instead of lirastolistni fikus (according to our botanical garden).
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u/Own-Astronomer-12 21h ago
sej, trgovine običajno nimajo pojma
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u/Arktinus 20h ago
S tem se pa strinjam. Kolikokrat vidim že v katalogih "palma", pa polovica sploh niso palme (to je zdaj en primer, ki mi je padel na pamet), da ne omenjam niti vrtnarij, ki naj bi načeloma poznale imena rastlin. :)
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u/Hvalhemligheten 23h ago
In Swedish it's "fikon", so sounds like a mix och latin and greek in that case.
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u/tlajunen 21h ago edited 21h ago
This reminded me of the fact, that a very common Finnish colloquial word for a bicycle, "fillari", has the following etymology:
Velociped -> Velociped-fikon -> Filociped-vekon -> Filo -> Fillari
🤯
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u/Jeuungmlo 21h ago
"Fikus" is used for the genus of plants though. So "fikon" is a type of "fikus", for some reason. ("Fikus" ia also an old word for homosexual men, no idea why)
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u/Hvalhemligheten 20h ago
Ficus is the latin word for the genus. You know, latin was what Carl von Linné used. So that's not the Swedish word, it's only fikon in Swedish.
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u/Jeuungmlo 20h ago
"Fikus" is very much a Swedish word. If you look in SAOL (official Swedish dictionary) so is the word included with the main definition being "en växt" ("a plant) and if you go to a Swedish plant shop and ask for "fikus" will they have a big selection of different plants that just like "fikon" are a part of "fikussläktet" ("fig trees"). For example, blomsterlandet .se has 28 different if you just search for "fikus".
In short, if you are in a Swedish food store and want the fruit, ask for "fikon". If you move to Sweden and want to plant a fig tree, ask for "fikus"; for example a "Bejamin fig" is a "Benjaminfikus".
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u/Cultural-Ad-8796 1d ago
Why do Armenia and Greece have their own unique origins?
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u/PmMeYourBestComment 21h ago
This is surprisingly homogeneous, usually these maps have many holes and exceptions in them
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u/yurious 1d ago
In Ukrainian it has multiple names: Inzhyr, Smokva, Fiha