cilantro

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish cilantro (“coriander”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a variant of culantro.^[3][7][2] The OED records the Spanish form culantro from the 13th century or earlier and cilantro from 1606 or earlier, both from Late Latin coliandrum.^[2][8] The American Heritage Dictionary calls coliandrum a Late Latin alteration of Latin coriandrum,^[5] the source of coriander;^[3][5] Merriam-Webster sets Medieval Latin celiandrum between the Late Latin and the Spanish forms,^[4][9] and Dictionary.com describes the intermediate form as a dissimilated Vulgar Latin one.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The coriander plant or its leaves as a flavouring: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1903,^[4] Dictionary.com to 1900–05,^[7] and Etymonline finds it by 1907.^[3] The OED's first quotation, from 1929, is in a book of Spanish-Mexican cookery, and there the word means the seed of the plant.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Concise Oxford date it to the 1920s.^[6][10]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word meant the seed of coriander, but it came to mean chiefly the leaf, used as a seasoning or garnish, especially in Mexican and other Latin American cooking.^[2][8] It is the usual American and Canadian name for the herb; in Britain and many other countries the plant and its leaves are called coriander.^[11][4] The Dictionary of American Regional English records it from Texas in 1967, where an informant knew the plant as culantro, and in a 1976 New York newspaper report from Chicago.^[12]

Timeline

• 1903 – coriander leaves used as a flavouring, in Merriam-Webster's dating.^[4] Etymonline finds the word by 1907.^[3]
• 1929 – the seed of the coriander plant, in a book of Spanish-Mexican cookery.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The leaves of the coriander plant, used as a herb for flavouring or as a garnish: Sprinkle the tacos with chopped cilantro.^[4][2][1]
2. (US and Canadian) The coriander plant itself.^[11][4]

Related words

• coriander

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ 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