The Mad Apple of Summer

Eggplant is known as aubergine in French, after other variations traveled through Sanskrit, Arabic, and Catalan before landing on the current name eggplant, a nod to its shape. In Greek circles, the vegetable goes by melitzana. This translates in Italian to mela insana and melanzana, meaning “mad apple,” as the vegetable was often confused with other poisonous plants in the nightshade species, one of eggplant’s ancestors.