Give me the origin, history of the words potato, cucumber, taka, dozen and lakh ?

potato

1560s, from Sp. patata, from Carib (Haiti) batata "sweet potato." Sweet potatoes were first to be introduced to Europe; in cultivation in Spain by mid-16c.; in Virginia by 1648. Early 16c. Portuguese traders carried the crop to all their shipping ports and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java. The name later (1590s) was extended to the common white potato, from Peru, which was at first (mistakenly) called Virginia potato, or, because at first it was of minor importance compared to the sweet potato, bastard potato. Spanish invaders in Peru began to use white potatoes as cheap food for sailors 1530s. The first potato from South America reached Pope Paul III in 1540; grown in France at first as an ornamental plant. According to popular tradition, introduced to Ireland 1565 by John Hawkins. Brought to England from Colombia by Sir Thomas Herriot, 1586.

Ger. kartoffel (17c.) is a dissimilation from tartoffel, ultimately from It. tartufolo (V.L. *territuberem), originally "truffle." Frederick II forced its cultivation on Prussian peasants in 1743. The French is pomme de terre, lit. "earth-apple;" a Swedish dialectal word for "potato" is jordpäron, lit. "earth-pear." Colloquial pronunciation tater is attested in print from 1759. To drop (something) like a hot potato is from 1846. Children's counting-out rhyme that begins one potato, two potato first recorded 1885 in Canada.

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cucumber (n.)

late 14c., from O.Fr. cocombre (13c., Mod.Fr. concombre), from L. cucumerem (nom. cucumis), perhaps from a pre-Italic Mediterranean language. The Latin word also is the source of It. cocomero, Sp. cohombro, Port. cogombro. Replaced O.E. eorþæppla (pl.), lit. "earth-apples." Cowcumber was common form 17c.-18c., and that pronunciation lingered into 19c. Planted as a garden vegetable by 1609 by Jamestown colonists. Phrase cool as a cucumber (c.1732) embodies ancient folk knowledge confirmed by science in 1970: inside of a field cucumber on a warm day is 20 degrees cooler than the air temperature.

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dozen

c.1300, from O.Fr. dozaine "a dozen," from doze (12c.) "twelve," from L. duodecim "twelve," from duo "two" + decem "ten" (see ten). The O.Fr. fem. suffix -aine is characteristically added to cardinals to form collectives in a precise sense ("exactly 12," not "about 12"). The dozens "invective contest" (1928) originated in slave culture, the custom probably African, the word probably from bulldoze (q.v.) in its original sense of "a whipping, a thrashing."

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cucumber (n.)

late 14c., from O.Fr. cocombre (13c., Mod.Fr. concombre), from L. cucumerem (nom. cucumis), perhaps from a pre-Italic Mediterranean language. The Latin word also is the source of It. cocomero, Sp. cohombro, Port. cogombro. Replaced O.E. eorþæppla (pl.), lit. "earth-apples." Cowcumber was common form 17c.-18c., and that pronunciation lingered into 19c. Planted as a garden vegetable by 1609 by Jamestown colonists. Phrase cool as a cucumber (c.1732) embodies ancient folk knowledge confirmed by science in 1970: inside of a field cucumber on a warm day is 20 degrees cooler than the air temperature.

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dozen

c.1300, from O.Fr. dozaine "a dozen," from doze (12c.) "twelve," from L. duodecim "twelve," from duo "two" + decem "ten" (see ten). The O.Fr. fem. suffix -aine is characteristically added to cardinals to form collectives in a precise sense ("exactly 12," not "about 12"). The dozens "invective contest" (1928) originated in slave culture, the custom probably African, the word probably from bulldoze (q.v.) in its original sense of "a whipping, a thrashing."

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