First things first: how did the eggplant get its name? Well, leaving aside the fact that most of the world calls it something else, “eggplant” was first applied to the original white cultivars that actually do resemble hen’s eggs.
Outside of Australia and North America, its names are derived from the Arabic badinjan — aubergine in Europe, brinjal in India — while the Greeks, lacking a B sound, passed it to the Italians as melanzana, which was then turned into a pun: mela insana, or “mad apple”.
Oddly enough,