Tamil words in English

[N. Ganesan]

>>Are rice and tamil 'arici' related?

>I am sure it is a Tamil loanword appearing not only in English but also in
>other European languages (e.g. Czech ryze via Greek oryza).

Greetings, Prof. Filipsky. This is not widely known.

Thanks for the suggestion for OED on CD-ROM. I will search
for the keywords: tamil, dravidian, telugu, malayalam, kannada
and tulu. Please feel free to add any words from Tamil. I don't
think the OED compilers had or have any scholars who know well Tamil or
Dravidian.

Here is what Prof. K. Nachimuthu from Warsaw adds. May be useful for your
project. His e-mail: tamizh at plearn.edu.pl

**           Regarding Dravidian borrowals into English there is details in
**Prof. T. P. Meenakshisundaram's History of Tamil Language.There are articles
**in Indian Linguistics written by scholars like Dr.S.V.Subramanian.There
**is also a book reprinted by DLA may be Indo Aryan loan words in Malayalam.
**If you are interestedin curiosities you canalso refer the Hobson Jobson...
**with greetings. Have a good Thai Pusam. anbudan, K. Nachimuthu.

Regards,
N. Ganesan

Aside:
To be on the safe side, I would add that arici is not only tamil
but Telugu, ProtoDravidian as well. :-)