cumin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English comin, also cumin and early cymin,^[2][3] partly inherited from Old English cymen and partly borrowed from Old French comin, also cumin.^[4][5][6][2] The OED says that the Middle English word was either from French or the Old English one altered after French;^[4] the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century.^[7] The Old English word goes back, like Old High German kumīn and Middle Low German kömen, to a prehistoric West Germanic word borrowed from Latin.^[8] Both the Old English and the French word are from Latin cumīnum, also cymīnum,^[4][2][9] from Ancient Greek κύμινον (kúminon),^{[4][9][3][10]} which is of Semitic origin, according to Klein and Collins,^[3][11] probably so, according to the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[10][6] The OED takes the Greek word as a foreign word related to the Semitic names of the plant in Hebrew and Arabic;^[4][5][9] Klein also compares Akkadian kamūnu, and notes that the Greek word is already found in Mycenaean Greek.^[3] The Latin word also came down in Italian cumino, Spanish comino and Portuguese cominho, and the Germanic word in German Kümmel, Swedish kummin and Danish kummen.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plant and its seed: Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care,^[4] in the passage on tithing mint, dill and cumin.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word named the plant and its aromatic seed, used in medicine and cooking.^[2] From 1578 it was also used, with a qualifying word, for other plants, as Armenian cumin for caraway;^[4] black cumin is nigella.^[5] From 1741 it was used figuratively in allusion to Matthew 23:23, where the Pharisees tithe "mint and anise and cumin" but neglect weightier things;^[4] Weekley notes that the word is now usually heard in that allusion.^[13]

Timeline

• Old English – the plant cumin and its seed.^[4][12]
• c. 1330 – Middle English comyn, among spices, in Reinbrun.^[2]
• 1578 – with qualifying words, other plants, as Armenian cumin, caraway.^[4]
• 1741 – figurative, in allusion to Matthew 23:23.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small plant of the carrot family, Cuminum cyminum, native to the Mediterranean region, Egypt and Syria, grown for its aromatic seeds.^[8][11][4]
2. The seeds of this plant, used whole or ground as a spice, as in curry powder.^[11][5]
3. With a qualifying word, any of several similar plants, as black cumin, nigella.^[5][4]

Word family

• black cumin

Related words

• kümmel

Usage notes

It is also spelled cummin.^[8][11][5] The OED's first edition (1893) gave only the pronunciation /ˈkʌmɪn/; it now adds /ˈk(j)uːmɪn/ for British English.^[4]

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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray