On the origin of the walnut’s name: why “Kyrgyz zhangagy”

From a botanical point of view, the nut widely known in our region as the “Greek nut” (the walnut) is the species Juglans regia L., which belongs to the genus Juglans of the family Juglandaceae.

Juglans regia (usually written Juglans regia L.) is the international scientific (Latin) name of the walnut.

Such binomial, two-word plant names were introduced in the 1750s by the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus: the first word denotes the genus of the plant and the second the name of the species.

What the Latin name means

The binomial botanical term for the walnut translates from Latin as follows:

• Juglans (the genus name) comes from the Latin Jovis glans, meaning “Jupiter’s nut” or “nut of the gods” (Jupiter was the chief god of the ancient Romans).
• regia (the species epithet) comes from the Latin regius — “royal”, “great” or “belonging to a king”.

In botanical taxonomy the term Juglans regia serves as a single standard: whatever language people speak and whatever they call the plant, it precisely identifies one species — the walnut.

Historical and common names

The earliest information about the walnut is found in the works of the ancient Greek philosopher and naturalist Theophrastus, who refers to it as the “Persian nut”.

In different countries Juglans regia L. has various common and historically established names, among them “Persian walnut”, “royal walnut”, “English walnut”, “Chilean walnut”, as well as “true walnut”, “common walnut” and others.

Where the name “Greek nut” comes from

In Russia, what is now called the “Greek nut” (gretsky orekh) was originally known as the “Voloshsky nut”. The name is believed to be linked to Wallachia — a historical region in present-day Romania that was known in old Rus as the Voloshsky land. The name most likely arose because walnuts were brought to Russia from there.

Later the name “Greek nut” came to be associated with Greek merchants, who played a significant role in the trade.

Both names used in Russia — “Voloshsky nut” and “Greek nut” — refer to the same botanical species, Juglans regia L.; this is confirmed by Vladimir Dal’s Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language and by the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

The name “Greek nut” later became widespread in the Russian language and has been retained in a number of post-Soviet countries, including Kyrgyzstan.

Scientific and common names are not the same thing

At the same time, a plant’s scientific name must be distinguished from its common name. As noted above, the international scientific name of this species — Juglans regia L. — is the generally accepted binomial botanical name, whereas national and local names may vary: “Kyrgyz zhangagy”, “Kyrgyz zhanagy” and so on.

Here are a few similar examples:

• Salix babylonica — “weeping willow”; in Kyrgyz, “mazhurum tal”
• Populus pyramidalis — “Lombardy poplar”; in Kyrgyz, “myrza terek”
• Sorbus persica — “Persian rowan”; in Kyrgyz, “alma chetin”
• Abies semenovii — “Semenov’s fir”; in Kyrgyz, “ak karagai”