Tomato
Thursday, October 18th, 2007The tomato plant is native to the New World, either to the west coast of South America, or possibly Mexico. It is not known whether it was domesticated and eaten by native peoples: there is no evidence that it was, but a huge amount of horticultural information was lost in the upheaval of the Spanish invasion. In any case, the Spanish certainly enjoyed it, and it became a staple of Italian cooking by the late 1500’s; but in England and its colonies, it was thought to be unfit to eat, because it contained glycoalkaloids (which are indeed poisonous, but the fruit is safe to eat). Tomatoes gradually became acceptable fare there during the 1700’s.
The word tomato comes ultimately from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word tomatl, literally “the swollen fruit”. It entered Spanish as tomate, and English as tomate in about 1600. By 1750, it had become tomato, perhaps by analogy with the closely related potato.
The central syllable of tomato is a manifestation of expansive, elastic energy, fitting its plump shape. The manifestation arises from a movement of earthy energy, and the result of the manifestation is more movement of earthy energy.
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