buckwheat

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Middle Dutch boecweite (“beech wheat”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or a partial translation of it;^[7][8][9] the Shorter Oxford and Hoad also allow borrowed from Middle Low German bōkwēte.^[4][3] The Middle Dutch compound is formed from boek (“beech”) and weite (“wheat”),^[3][7] and is the source of Dutch boekweit.^[8][9] The name comes from the likeness of the three-sided seeds to beechnuts, which also gave the plant its botanical name Fagopyrum.^{[10][2][7][6]} The OED takes it as perhaps directly from Dutch or from German Buchweizen, but notes that Turner called it a familiar name in 1548, thirty years before Lyte said he took it from Dutch, so the English word may have been formed independently, after buck-mast, beechmast;^[10] Etymonline likewise allows a native formation on the Dutch model.^[2] The first element is then the dialect form buck (“beech”), from Old English bōc,^[11][12] the source of beech; it has nothing to do with a male deer.^[6] Similar compounds are Danish boghvede and Swedish bovete.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cereal plant: 1548, in Turner's Names of Herbes,^[10][8] which also used the word for related plants such as black bindweed.^[10] Etymonline dates it to the 1540s, and Dictionary.com to 1540–50.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

Barnaby Googe, apparently independently, called the plant beech-wheat.^[10] Weekley notes that the plant was introduced from Asia in the 15th century, which explains the name French sarrasin, and compares Italian fagopiro, from the Italian word for beech.^[14] Johnson (1755) derived the English word from German and described the plant's spiked flowers and black three-cornered seeds.^[15] The seed was fed to horses and poultry in Europe, while in North America it was ground for flour.^[10][16] Since 1830 American English has used buckwheat alone for a buckwheat cake.^[10]

Timeline

• 1548 – the cereal plant; also applied to related plants such as black bindweed.^[10][8]
• 1830 – in the United States, short for a buckwheat cake.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plant of the genus Fagopyrum, especially the common species grown for its seeds, which have a triangular shape.^[17][8][10]
2. The seeds of this plant, used as animal fodder or ground into flour: a bag of roasted buckwheat.^[17][10]
3. Flour made from these seeds.^[17]
4. (US) A pancake made from this flour; a buckwheat cake.^[10]
5. Any of several related plants, such as black bindweed.^[10]

Word family

• buckwheatlike
• buckwheat cake
• buckwheat coal

Related words

• beech
• wheat
• buckmast

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins