Abstract
Finger millet, Eleusine coracana (Linn.) Gaertn. is usually considered to have been domesticated in tropical Africa. Nonetheless, it diffused across much of the Old World in prehistory, reaching Taiwan, the Himalayas, and Sumatra. The archaeobotanical record remains extremely patchy and the routes and dates of its arrival in many locations remain unknown. The paper makes use of comparative linguistics to begin the resolution of some of these issues. It reviews the archaeobotanical data which exists and then compiles tables of African and Asian names for finger millet. The paper identifies locally common linguistic roots, but there are no very widespread terms, suggesting there may a constant reborrowing of names with its near relative, goosegrass, Eleusine indica. A synthesis of the diffusion of finger millet is given at the end of the paper.
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