chamomile

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English camomille, also camemille and camamille,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French camomille,^[5][6][7][8] also camemile,^[9][2] or directly borrowed from Late Latin camomilla,^[10][4][3] also chamomilla,^[9][3][5] an alteration of Latin chamaemēlon,^{[7][10][5][3]} from Ancient Greek χαμαίμηλον (khamaímēlon, “earth apple”),^{[11][12][5][9][7]} from χαμαί (khamaí, “on the ground”) and μῆλον (mêlon, “apple”).^{[11][5][7][9][10]} The plant was so called from the apple-like scent of its flowers.^{[5][10][3][9][6]} Etymonline adds that khamaí also meant "dwarf" and is akin to the Greek word for "earth", from Proto-Indo-European *dhghem- (“earth”).^[9][7] Old English had borrowed the Latin word separately as camemalon.^[10][9][2] The Anglo-Norman form is camamille, recorded from the end of the 13th century.^[13] The spelling chamomile follows the Latin and Greek.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The aromatic plant now called Chamaemelum nobile: about 1265, according to the 1989 edition of the OED.^[14] The Historical Thesaurus dates the plant and medicinal senses to before 1300,^[15] and Etymonline to about 1300.^[9] The MED has the Latin camomilla glossed with camemille in a Harley vocabulary from before 1300,^[2] and Barnhart's first record is camomil in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum, before 1398.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named the common camomile and its dried flowers and oil, used as medicine.^[2] From 1578 it was also used for the whole genus Anthemis and for related plants, especially Matricaria;^[14] the Historical Thesaurus dates the Matricaria use to 1859.^[15] Compounds such as camomile flower and camomile tea are recorded from 1626.^[14] Johnson (1755) entered the word as chamomile, "the name of an odoriferous plant".^[16] Fowler wrote in 1927 that ca- was the literary and popular spelling and that cha- should be given up, but British English kept the older spelling while American English favoured the classical one, which has since spread.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1265 – the plant Chamaemelum nobile, and its flowers used in medicine.^[14][15]
• before 1398 – the form camomil, in Trevisa.^[10]
• 1578 – the genus Anthemis and related plants.^[14]
• 1626 – in compounds such as camomile tea.^[14]
• 1859 – plants of the genus Matricaria.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A low-growing, sweet-smelling European herb of the daisy family, Chamaemelum nobile, with feathery leaves and white-rayed, yellow-centred flowers.^[3][6][17]
2. Any of several related plants of the genera Anthemis and Matricaria, especially German chamomile, Matricaria recutita.^[3][17][6]
3. The dried flower heads of these plants, used to make a herbal tea and an oil with medicinal uses: She drinks a cup of chamomile before bed.^[3][17]

Word family

• stinking chamomile

Related words

• camomile
• melon
• chameleon
• humus
• malic

Usage notes

Collins lists chamomile as a variant spelling of camomile,^[17] and Merriam-Webster enters chamomile first;^[3] Etymonline notes that British English kept camomile while American English preferred chamomile.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b 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 i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins