curry

Curry, a spiced dish, is from Tamil kari, sauce; curry, to groom a horse, is from Old French correier, to put in order.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkʌr.i/, US /ˈkɝː.i/^[4]

curry¹ spiced dish

Etymology

It is borrowed from Tamil கறி (kaṟi, “sauce, relish for rice”),^[1][5][6] an earlier form carriel (1598) having come through Portuguese caril from Kannada karil.^[1][2] Etymonline thinks it a blend of various south Indian words meaning black or burnt, and so applied to spices and meats.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Indian dish, as carriel: 1598,^[1][7][6] the 1590s in Etymonline; the form curry is from 1681.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

Hobson-Jobson explains that in the East a small amount of a much more savoury preparation is eaten as a relish with the staple rice or bread.^[8] Spicy sauces from outside India, such as Thai curry, are called curries by the 1680s,^[2] and European dishes spiced in the Indian way from 1747 in British English;^[2] Word Origins mentions a curry recipe in The Art of Cookery of 1747.^[6] Curry as the spice blend is from 1780,^[2] curry powder from 1810,^[1] and the verb, to flavour with curry, from 1839.^[1][2] Etymonline notes that in modern Indian cookery spice blends without turmeric are called masala.^[2] Australian slang give someone curry, to attack them, is from 1941.^[7]

Timeline

• 1598 – carriel.^[1]
• 1681 – curry.^[1][5]
• 1747 – European curries.^[2]
• 1810 – curry powder.^[1]
• 1839 – to curry (verb).^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A dish of meat, fish or vegetables cooked in a spicy sauce, originally from India.
2. Curry powder, or a sauce made with it.

Verb

1. To flavour or cook with curry.

Word family

• curry powder

curry² groom

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French correier (“to put in order, prepare, curry a horse”), originally conreier, probably through Anglo-Norman curreier,^[1][2][3] from con-, intensive, and reier, to arrange, from rei, order, of Germanic origin (compare ready).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To rub down or comb a horse: about 1300 in Barnhart, the late 13th century in Etymonline.^[1][2][3]

Semantic evolution

To dress tanned leather is from the 15th century,^[3] and currycomb from the 16th.^[3] Curry favour (about 1510) is a folk-etymological alteration of earlier curry favel (about 1400),^[1][2] from Old French correier fauvel, to be hypocritical, literally to curry the fallow or chestnut horse,^[1][2] which in medieval French allegory stood for deceit;^[1][2] compare German den Falben streichen, to flatter.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to groom a horse.^[1]
• c. 1400 – curry favel.^[1]
• 15th century – to dress leather.^[3]
• c. 1510 – curry favour.^[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To groom a horse with a currycomb.
2. To dress tanned leather.
3. curry favour: to try to win approval by flattery.

Word family

• currycomb
• currier

Related words

• ready
• masala

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray