ABSTRACT
The earliest reference to the word rice in Europe can be found in the writings of the Greek tragedian Sophocles (495-406 BC) who mentioned with the name Orinda a cereal cultivated by a people who lived along the lower reaches of the Indus (Beluchistan, in the present days).1 The name was the same that some ethnic groups from India used for rice. The philosopher and scientist Theophrastus, who succeeded Aristotle as head of the peripatetic school, named it oryza. Rice was called with different names according to the languages of the populations who used it or cultivated it. For the Illirian peoples it was “Oriz”, “Tragos”, “Trophe” or “Olyra”. “Lyra” was the name for the ancient Egyptians. The Arabs called it “Eruz” “Arouz” a word from which is derived “Arroz”, the Spanish and Portuguese name for rice.
