zaNa (hemp)

[Geeta Bharathan]

Swaminathan Madhuresan wrote:

> --- Geeta Bharathan <geeta at LIFE.BIO.SUNYSB.EDU> wrote:
>
> > Corchorus capsularis and Corchorus olitorius (family Tiliaceae) are
> > sources of jute fibre that makes jute/gunny bags.
>
>  "gunny" as in gunny-bag comes from tamil word, "ka.n.ni"("rope","knot")etc.,
>  Check Madras univ. Lexicon; will look into my copy of Hobson-Jobson.

Hobson-Jobson says:
gunny derived from Skt goNi ; jute from Oriya jhoto/jhuto;
(They discount derivation of jute from Skt jata, matted hair--which etymology my
English dictionary gives).

--Geeta