Notes » August 2007

Kumquats and Quilts

Have you ever wondered how the word kumquat came to be?

Well wonder no more.

Dating to the year 1699, kumquat is a melding of two Cantonese words; the first being gam (金), meaning gold; and the second being gwat (橘), the name for the Mandarin orange or tangerine. Therefore gam gwat literally means golden orange.

It's amusing to note that if you pronounce "kum" with the same tone as gam (金) but use the hard English "k", a Cantonese speaker might think you're talking about a quilt.

Had the Romanised spelling been more accurate, we might have ended up with gumguat, which would have been a closer phonetic match, though using "ua" in "quat" results in an "o" vowel sound, as in the word hot.

It's possible that "qu" was used to avoid the vowel trouble that would have emerged had "gw" been used: some folks would have pronounced gwat with the hard, flat "a" of hat, when the actual sound is much closer to the "u" in the word cup. With that in mind, the spelling could even have been gumgwut.

But as we're stuck with kumquat, we can at least be certain about the fruit to which it refers. Most kumquats look like miniature oval oranges, though some species grow round. The Chinese prize the kumquat tree during Lunar New Year, as its name in Cantonese is a homonym which means golden good fortune. Decorating one's home or business with pots of kumquat trees is hoping they will bring wealth.

So there you have it: when Chinese New Year rolls around, grab a pair of kumquat trees, secure in the knowledge that should you chat with a native Cantonese speaker, you won't be calling them quilt oranges.

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