Name "eggplant" originates from the 18th century when cultivars with small, white fruit, shaped like hen's egg were popular. Eggplant is known as "crazy apple" in Italy due to widespread belief that diet rich in eggplants leads to madness. People in the U.K. called them aubergines. The word “aubergine” goes all the way back to the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. The eggplant is believed to have originated in India, where it is considered to be the King of Vegetables. The word “eggplant” that is used in North America comes from British-colonized India, where at the time, a small, white, egg-like variety of the vegetable was all the rage. Japan even has a proverb about eggplant: “The happiest omen for a New Year is first Mount Fuji, then the falcon, and lastly eggplant.”