[Sca-cooks] mint water

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

Oh, this is the OED on the origin of the word Mint, meaning the plant:

"Cognate with Middle Dutch minte, Old Saxon minta (Middle Low German 
minte), Old High German minza (Middle High German minze, minz, German 
Minze) < classical Latin menta, mentha, prob. borrowed, like ancient 
Greek {mu}{giacu}{nu}{theta}{eta} (in Hellenistic Greek also 
{mu}{giacu}{nu}{theta}{omicron}{fsigma}), from an unidentified source. 
Cf. Middle Dutch munte, muynte, muente (Dutch munt), Old High German 
munza (German Münze) which show unexplained variation in the root vowel.
  The form mente (cf. Middle Dutch mente) may perh. be influenced by 
Anglo-Norman, Old French mente (French menthe).] "

In other words, they suggest that the word in both German, Latin, and 
Greek are borrowings from an earlier source...

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"I thought you might need rescuing . . . We have a bunch of professors 
wandering around who need students." -- Dan Guernsey