broccoli

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian broccoli, the plural of broccolo (“cabbage sprout, flowering top”),^[2][3][4][5] a diminutive of brocco (“shoot, sprout; protruding tooth; small nail”),^[6][3][4] from Latin broccus (“projecting, having projecting teeth”), also brocchus.^[3][7][6] The American Heritage Dictionary puts Vulgar Latin *brocca (“spike”) between the Latin and the Italian words.^[8] The same Latin adjective is the source of broach and brooch, through French broche.^[6][9][10] Barnhart notes that the earlier French borrowing brocoli (1560) apparently played no part in bringing the word into English, since English kept the Italian spelling.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cultivated form of cabbage with an edible flowering head: 1699, in John Evelyn's Acetaria.^[2][3][4] Etymonline finds it used as an Italian word in English from the 1650s, and in Italian–English dictionaries from the 1590s, defined as "sprouts or tops of coleworts".^[6][11]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the plant was rare in England before the 18th century and was grown mainly as an ornament until late in that century; it was also called Italian asparagus (1735) and Italian cabbage (1797), and was sometimes confused with cauliflower.^[6] Johnson (1755) called it a species of cabbage, quoting Pope's line "On broccoli and mutton round the year".^[12] In British use the word also names a large, hardy form of cauliflower, and sprouting broccoli a form with many small heads.^[4][13] In Yorkshire dialect it meant cow-cabbage or borecole.^[14] In American drug slang of the 2000s broccoli is marijuana.^[15]

Timeline

• 1590s – in Italian–English dictionaries.^[6]
• 1650s – as an Italian word in English.^[6]
• 1699 – in Evelyn's Acetaria.^[2][3][4]
• 1755 – in Johnson's dictionary, as a species of cabbage.^[12]
• 2001 – slang, marijuana.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plant of the cabbage family, Brassica oleracea italica, with a thick stem and dense green or purple florets: She steamed some broccoli for dinner.^[16][4]
2. The flower heads and stems of this plant, eaten as a vegetable before the buds open.^[16][4]
3. (chiefly British) A large, hardy kind of cauliflower.^[4][13]

Word family

• broccoli rabe

Related words

• brocade
• broach
• brooch
• cauliflower

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins