Origin of the Lychee Name

This 40 C hot summer is the hottest compared to previous years. Fortunately, to quench our thirst, May to July is the succulent and fresh lychee season in our Thai village in Chiangrai, Northern Thailand. I would like to write about it but will deviate from the norm to glorify this fruit of its health benefits. How about the origin of its name? The Thais pronounced the fruit as ‘litchi’.

My wife and I drove 20km to the city to purchase the prime-grade variety of fresh lychee because there are at least four varieties grown in the North. The two best varieties are “Hong Huai” and “Chakrapat” (Emperor lychee). The above fruits cost us 50 Thai Baht to a kilogram compared to 20 to 30 Thai Baht the previous year. According to the seller, the yield for this year is way below her expectation. She says the yield from one tree was usually 1000 kilogram but this year, it is only 500 kilogram. It may be due to the unusual dry weather. Or are we experiencing the global warming effect already?

It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to China as well as cultivated in Thailand and other parts of the world. During the reign of the Han Dynasty in 140 to 186 BC, there was deliberation of its name in Chinese characters base on the fact that the fruit clings doggedly to the twigs, requiring the use of pruning knife in separating the fruit from the branches. Thus, the word ‘lychee’ in Chinese character is a combination of ideographs which are used in the derivation of the characters and the pronunciation of their sounds.

Lychee is grown and exported worldwide, is native to South China, which is a Cantonese speaking region, hence its name pronounced in Western countries approximates to the Cantonese sound. However, Mandarin being the official language in China, is pronounced as ‘lichih’

There are many English spellings to it, example laichi, lici, li-tchi, lichi, lychi and lichee. Only the last word ‘lichee’ can match ‘lychee’. The objection to commonly accept the word ‘lichee’ because ‘li’ as an initial syllable that has varying sounds as in ‘little’, lithe and liter but ‘ly’ as the initial syllable is definitely as in ‘lying’ or ‘lyrate. Therefore, the word ‘lychee’ will best communicate the correct Cantonese sound of the word.

Thai lychee is one of the top exports to most part of the world in a variety of forms – fresh, dried, canned as well as lychee juice and wine.

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