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The Greek and Latin
words for "olive" and "olive oil" do not
derive from Semitic languages spoken in the areas from which
the olive almost certainly originated.
It is generally held that the
Phoenicians spread the olive to the Mediterranean shores
of Africa and Southern Europe. If the Greeks had learned about
olive cultivation and olive oil production from the Semitic
peoples, namely the Phoenicians, one would expect that the
words that they use to describe these activities would have
derived from the Semitic tongue.
Thus, it is possible that the
Greeks derived their own practices for olive cultivation
and olive oil production and that they created their own
terms for these processes rather than use the Semitic
terms.
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