Etymologically
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cauliflower

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒl.i.flaʊ.ə/, /ˈkɒl.ɪ.flaʊ.ə/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɔl.ɪˌflaʊ.ɚ/, /ˈkɑl.ɪˌflaʊ.ɚ/[1]

Etymology

The earliest English forms, cole florye and colieflorie,[2][3][4][5] are, according to most dictionaries, borrowed from Italian cavoli fiori (“flowered cabbages”), the plural of cavolfiore,[2][6][7][8][4] with the first element made to match cole.[3][4][5] The OED and the Shorter Oxford also allow French chou fleuri or chou flori, probably itself from Italian, or New Latin cauliflōra, all meaning "flowered cabbage";[3][9][5] the American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart prefer the New Latin word.[10][11] cavolo (“cabbage”) is from Late Latin caulus, a variant of Latin caulis (“stem, stalk; cabbage”), and fiore (“flower”) is from flōs (“flower”).[6][7][2] The second element was reshaped after flower in the 17th century, and the first was re-Latinized after caulis from the 18th.[5][2][3] The OED compares German Blumenkohl, Dutch bloemkool and Spanish coliflor, and modern French chou-fleur.[3] Caulis was borrowed early into Germanic and is the source of cole, kale and the first part of coleslaw;[2][8] Ayto traces it to an Indo-European base that also gave hole and hollow.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cabbage variety with a white edible flower head: 1597, in Gerard's Herball.[3][11][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.[2]

Semantic evolution

From the vegetable the name passed to things of the same shape: pottery made like a cauliflower (1757), then anything shaped like one (1803),[3][9] such as the froth on ale in Scotland or a knot on a candle wick in Lincolnshire.[12] In 18th-century slang a cauliflower was a large white wig of the kind worn by senior clergy (Grose, 1785), and in 1774 "the very colliflower of the mode" meant the height of fashion.[13] A cauliflower ear, an ear deformed by repeated blows in boxing, is dated 1907 by Etymonline;[2] Tréguer finds it in 1887, in a boxing report in The Boston Daily Globe.[14] The verb, to disfigure an ear in this way, is recorded from 1947.[3][6]

Timeline

  • 1597 – the vegetable.[3][11]
  • 1757 – pottery in the shape of a cauliflower.[3]
  • 1785 – a large white wig, in slang.[13]
  • 1803 – something shaped like a cauliflower.[3]
  • 1887 – cauliflower ear.[14]
  • 1947 – verb, to disfigure an ear by blows.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A variety of cabbage grown for its large, dense white head of undeveloped flowers.[7][6][15][3]
  2. The head of this plant, eaten as a vegetable: cauliflower with cheese sauce.[7][9]
  3. Something shaped like a cauliflower head.[3][9]

Verb

  1. To disfigure an ear by repeated blows, as in boxing.[6][3]

Word family

  • cauliflower fungus
  • cauliflower ear

Usage notes

Hendrickson notes that Mark Twain called the cauliflower "cabbage with a college education".[16] In parts of the United States it is pronounced as if spelt colleyflower or cullyflower.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ 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)
  13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "cauliflower ear", 15 March 2024
  15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  16. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
  17. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press