cardamom

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cardamōmum,^[2][3][4][5] and in part borrowed from Old French cardemome,^{[6][5][7][8][9]} from Ancient Greek καρδάμωμον (kardámōmon),^[2][6][4][9] from κάρδαμον (kárdamon, “cress”) and ἄμωμον (ámōmon, “an Indian spice plant”),^{[2][6][4][10][11]} contracted by haplology from *καρδαμάμωμον (kardamámōmon).^[4][6][2] The OED calls the word for cress of unknown origin, perhaps a loanword,^[2][11] and the American Heritage Dictionary of Near Eastern origin, comparing Akkadian kuddimmu (“garden cress”); it compares the name of the spice plant, probably black cardamom, with Akkadian ḫamīmu, an aromatic.^[6] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com describe the Greek word as a blend.^[3][12] Etymonline takes the modern form from French cardamome in the 1550s.^[11] Old French cardemome is recorded from about 1170,^[2] and Anglo-Norman cardamome from the second quarter of the 13th century.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seeds or seed capsules of the plant, used as a spice and in medicine: about 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[2][5] The Latin form cardimomum occurs earlier in an English text, Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1398).^[2][5][11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named both the spice and the plant that yields it.^[5][7] From 1755 it was also applied, with a qualifying word, to the seeds of related plants of the genera Amomum and Aframomum.^[2][14] The variants cardamon, with the nasals dissimilated, and cardamum are still used.^[2][14][3] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1553.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the Latin form cardimomum in an English text.^[2][5]
• c. 1425 – the spice from the seed capsules of Elettaria cardamomum.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1553.^[3]
• 1755 – with a distinguishing word, the seeds of related plants.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The aromatic seeds or seed capsules of an Indian plant of the ginger family, used as a spice and in medicine: a pinch of cardamom in the coffee.^[14][3][2]
2. The plant itself, Elettaria cardamomum.^[14][3]
3. Any of several related plants of the genera Amomum and Aframomum, whose seeds are used in the same way.^[14][2]

Related words

• amomum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins