carob

Etymology

It is first recorded as inherited from Middle English carabe, also karabe,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French carobe.^[3][4] The Middle English Dictionary derives the Middle English form instead from Medieval Latin carabe, itself from Arabic.^[2] The modern form is borrowed from Middle French carobe, also carrobe,^[5][6][7][8] now caroube,^[5][8] which replaced Old French carouge.^[8] The French word is from Medieval Latin carrūbium, also carrubia,^{[6][7][3][8][9]} from Arabic خَرُّوب (kharrūb, “bean pods, carobs”).^[1][5][7] The OED, Merriam-Webster and Hoad print the Arabic form with a final vowel, ending in -ah or -a.^[5][6][8] Wiktionary takes it further back to Classical Syriac ܚܪܘܒܐ (ḥarrūḇā),^[1] and Etymonline and Webster's New World point to Aramaic and Assyrian, Etymonline with a “perhaps”.^[10][11] The word corresponds to Italian carrubo and Spanish garrobo, also algarrobo,^[5] and with the Arabic article it gave algarroba.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit of the tree: before 1400, in a Middle English Lanfranc, as a medicine against bleeding, “trociscus de carabe”.^[2] The modern form appears in 1548, in W. Turner's Names of Herbes, for both the tree and its fruit: “It may be called in english a Carobe tree, and the fruite Carobes or Carobbeanes.”^[5] Merriam-Webster gives the same year, and Etymonline the 1540s.^[12][10]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English quotations come from medical texts, Lanfranc and Chauliac.^[2] Cotgrave, glossing the French word, also calls it Saint John's bread,^[13] and so does Johnson (1755);^[14] Weekley notes that it was usually identified with the husks of the Prodigal Son and the locusts of John the Baptist.^[13] The seeds were once used as standards of weight,^[6] which is how carat got its name, although that word comes from the pod's name in Greek and not from carob.^[15][16] Modern dictionaries add the use of the pod or its pulp as a substitute for chocolate.^[17][3]

Timeline

• before 1400 – as carabe, the fruit of the tree.^[2][3]
• 1548 – as carobe, the tree and its fruit.^[5][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An evergreen leguminous Mediterranean tree (Ceratonia siliqua) with pinnate leaves and long, dark pods.^{[3][6][17][5]}
2. The pod of this tree, with a sweet edible pulp and hard seeds, used as food and fodder; also called algarroba, locust bean or Saint John's bread.^{[6][3][17][5]}
3. A powder or flour made from the ground pods and seeds, used as a substitute for chocolate: a cake made with carob.^[3][17]

Related words

• algarroba

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins