cole
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Pronunciation
- IPA: /kəʊl/, /kɔʊl/ (UK); /koʊl/ (US)[1]
Etymology
It is Middle English col, a dialect survival from late Old English cāwel, cāl,[2][3][4] perhaps influenced by Old Norse kál,[2][5][6] both from Latin caulis (“stem, stalk; cabbage”),[2][3] which in Vulgar Latin replaced brassica as the usual word for cabbage.[2] Latin caulis also gave Italian cavolo, French chou, German Kohl and Dutch kool.[2][6]
Earliest recorded meaning
Any of various plants of the cabbage genus: about 1000.[7][3]
Semantic evolution
Pottage, a sense now obsolete, is from about 1460.[7] Cabbage-cole is from 1620.[7] The word survives mainly in compounds such as coleseed, colewort and coleslaw.[5][3] Its Scottish form is kale.[6]
Timeline
Modern meaning
Noun
Word family
- coleseed
- coleslaw
Related words
- borecole
- colewort
- cauliflower
- kale
- kohlrabi
Usage notes
An obsolete cole, trickery or a cheat, of unknown origin, is inferred from texts of about 1300 to the 16th century.[2][7]
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press