parsley

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English percely, also persely,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English petersilie,^[3][5][6][7] borrowed from Medieval Latin petrosilium, blended with Middle English percil,^[2][4] borrowed from Old French peresil (now persil), from the same Medieval Latin form.^[5][3][2][8] The OED, which spells the Latin form petresilium (9th century), also names the Anglo-Norman spellings persil and persille as sources of the reborrowing.^[8][9] The Medieval Latin word is an unexplained alteration of Latin petroselīnum,^[5][8] from Ancient Greek πετροσέλινον (petrosélīnon, “rock parsley”),^[5][10][8] formed from πέτρα (pétrā, “rock”) or πέτρος (pétros, “stone”) and σέλινον (sélīnon, “celery, parsley”).^{[2][10][4][5]} Barnhart thinks the Old English word probably came through West Germanic,^[3] and the OED lists the early borrowings into other Germanic languages: Middle Dutch petersilie, Old High German pētarseli (now Petersilie), Swedish persilja and Danish persille; compare also Italian petrosello.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The garden herb: early Old English, in Bald's Leechbook,^[8] about 1000 according to Barnhart.^[3] The Old English word is glossed "parsley" in the medical texts.^[7]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, the word came into English twice: directly from Latin in the Old English period, and again in the 13th century through the Old French form; by the 14th century the two had begun to merge into percely, later parsley.^[4][2] Barnhart finds persely before 1300,^[3] and Weekley quotes Piers Plowman for percyl, with the manuscript variants persille and persely.^[11] The OED explains the spellings passley and pasley by an early loss of r before s.^[8] From the late 13th century the name was extended, with a distinguishing word, to many plants that look like garden parsley, such as fool's parsley and cow parsley;^[8][12][13] Hamburg parsley, grown for its root, is recorded from 1731.^[8] In slang the herb has stood for nonsense (US, 1902, and British, 1914), for money in African American use (1947) and for female pubic hair (1980).^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English petersilie, the herb.^[3][8]
• before 1300 – persely, the blended form; plants resembling parsley.^[3][8]
• 1526 – parsley of Macedonia, a related plant (obsolete by 1787).^[8]
• 1731 – Hamburg parsley, grown for its root.^[8]
• 1842 – the flat-leaved variety.^[8]
• 1902 – nonsense, rubbish, in US slang.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A biennial herb of southern Europe (Petroselinum crispum), grown for its curled or flat aromatic leaves, used to flavour and garnish food: Sprinkle the soup with chopped parsley.^[12][13][8]
2. Any of various similar plants of the same family, such as fool's parsley and cow parsley.^[12][13][8]
3. (slang) Nonsense, rubbish.^[14]

Adjective

1. Of, like or flavoured with parsley: parsley butter.^[13]

Word family

• parsleylike

Related words

• celery
• petroselinum
• petrify
• petrous
• petrol

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com