RICE, s. The well-known cereal, Oryza sativa, L. There is a strong temptation to derive the Greek ὀρύζα, which is the source of our word through It. riso, Fr. riz, etc., from the Tamil ariśi, 'rice deprived of husk,' ascribed to a root ari, 'to separate.' It is quite possible that Southern India was the original seat of rice cultivation. Roxburgh (Flora Indica, ii. 200) says that a wild rice, known as Newaree [Skt. nīvāra, Tel. nivvāri] by the Telinga people, grows abundantly about the lakes in the Northern Circars, and he considers this to be the original plant.
It is possible that the Arabic al-ruzz (arruzz) from which the Spaniards directly take their word arroz, may have been taken also directly from the Dravidian term. But it is hardly possible that ὀρύζα can have had that origin. The knowledge of rice apparently came to Greece from the expedition of Alexander, and the mention of ὀρύζα by Theophrastus, which appears to be the oldest, probably dates almost from the lifetime of Alexander (d. B.C. 323). Aristobulus, whose accurate account is quoted by Strabo (see below), was a companion of Alexander's expedition, but seems to have written later than Theophrastus. The term was probably acquired on the Oxus, or in the Punjab. And though no Skt. word for rice is nearer ὀρύζα than vrīhi, the very common exchange of aspirant and sibilant might easily give a form like vrīsi or brīsi (comp. hindū, sindū, &c.) in the dialects west of India. Though no such exact form seems to have been produced from old Persian, we have further indications of it in the Pushtu, which Raverty writes, sing. 'a grain of rice' w'rijza'h, pl. 'rice' w'rijzey, the former close to oryza. The same writer gives in Barakai (one of the uncultivated languages of the Kabul country, spoken by a 'Tajik' tribe settled in Logar, south of Kabul, and also at Kanigoram in the Waziri country) the word for rice as w'rizza, a very close approximation again to oryza. The same word is indeed given by Leech, in an earlier vocabulary, largely coincident with the former, as rizza. The modern Persian word for husked rice is birinj, and the Armenian brinz. A nasal form, deviating further from the hypothetical brīsi or vrīsi, but still probably the same in origin, is found among other languages of the Hindū Kūsh tribes, e.g. Burishki (Khajuna of Leitner) broṉ; Shina (of Gilgit), brīūṉ; Khowar of the Chitral Valley (Arniyah of Leitner), grinj (Biddulph, Tribes of Hindoo Koosh, App., pp. xxxiv., lix., cxxxix.).
1298.—"Il hi a forment et ris asez, mès il ne menuient pain de forment por ce que il est en cele provence enferme, mès menuient ris et font poison (i.e. drink) de ris con especes qe molt e(s)t biaus et cler et fait le home evre ausi con fait le vin."—Marc Pol. Geo. Text, 132.
B.C. c. 320-300.—"Μᾶλλον δὲ σπείρουσι τὸ καλούμενον ὅρυζον, ἐξ οὗ το ἔψημα· τοῦτο δὲ ὅμοιον τῇ ζειᾷ, καὶ περιπτισθὲν οἷον χόνδρος, ευπεπτον δὲ τὴν ὄψιν πεφυκὸς ὅμοιον ταῖς αἴραις, καὶ τὸν πολύν χρόνον ἐν ὕδατι. Ἀποχεῖται δὲ οὒκ εἰς στάχυν, ἀλλ' οἷον φόβην ὥσπερ ὁ κέγχρος καὶ ὁ ἔλυμος."—Theophrast. de Hist. Plantt., iv. c. 4.
B.C. c. 20.—"The rice (ὄρυζα), according to Aristobulus, stands in water, in an enclosure. It is sowed in beds. The plant is 4 cubits in height, with many ears, and yields a large produce. The harvest is about the time of the setting of the Pleiades, and the grain is beaten out like barley.
"It grows in Bactriana, Babylonia, Susis, and in the Lower Syria."—Strabo, xv. i. § 18, in Bohn's E.T. iii. 83.
B.C. 300.—"Megasthenes writes in the second Book of his Indica: The Indians, says he, at their banquets have a table placed before each person. This table is made like a buffet, and they set upon it a golden bowl, into which they first help boiled rice (ὄρυζαν), as it might be boiled groats, and then a variety of cates dressed in Indian fashions."—Athenaeus, iv. § 39.
A.D. c. 70.—"Hordeum Indis sativum et silvestre, ex quo panis apud eos praecipuus et alica. Maxime quidem oryza gaudent, ex qua tisanam conficiunt quam reliqui mortales ex hordeo...."—Pliny, xviii. 13. Ph. Holland has here got so wrong a reading that we abandon him.
A.D. c. 80-90.—"Very productive is this country (Syrastrēnē or Penins. Guzerat) in wheat and rice (ὀρύζης) and sessamin oil and butter[[230]] (see [GHEE]) and cotton, and the abounding Indian piece-goods made from it."—Periplus, § 41.
ROC, s. The Rukh or fabulous colossal bird of Arabian legend. This has been treated of at length by one of the present writers in Marco Polo (Bk. iii. ch. 33, notes); and here we shall only mention one or two supplementary facts.