radish

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English redich, later radish,^[2][3] inherited from Old English rædic,^[2][4][5][6] borrowed from Latin rādīx (“root, edible root, radish”).^[7][8][9] The final consonant of the Old English word shows palatalization of the plosive it had in the Latin noun.^[7] The word was then reinforced by Anglo-Norman radich and radice,^[7][10] and the modern spelling is usually put down to French: Barnhart and Etymonline suggest the influence of Old French radise, a variant of radice,^[2][5] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford a blending with French radis,^[3][9] which Klein and Weekley derive from Italian radice and Skeat from Old Occitan raditz or the Italian word.^[11][12][13] Klein and Skeat took the English word as a loan from French,^[11][13] but it is already recorded in Old English.^[7][6] The Latin noun was also borrowed early into other Germanic languages: Middle Dutch radic, Old Saxon redik and Old High German ratih, whence German Rettich.^[7][6] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *wrād-,^[4] Merriam-Webster points to root,^[8] and Weekley calls it ultimately cognate with wort.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The edible root of the plant: Old English, about 1000 in Barnhart.^[2] The OED's first record is in Bald's Leechbook.^[7] Bosworth–Toller has it in the medical texts as rædic, rédic and hrǽdic, and in glosses of Latin raphanus.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin noun meant "root" in general and also this particular edible root,^[8][5] and English took it over only for the plant.^[7][9] Already in late Old English the word could name other, chiefly wild, plants when qualified by another word.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it merely as "a root" and went on to describe the flower and the pod.^[14] In the 20th century it was applied to a person (from 1919), in the same way as the compound radish communist, someone who professes communism without real commitment.^[7] Farmer and Henley recorded it as slang for the penis in 1890–1904.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – the root, as rædic.^[2][7]
• before 1200 – redic.^[2]
• before 1300 – redich.^[2]
• 1373 – radisshe.^[2]
• 15th century – the form radish.^[3][8]
• 1919 – a nominal communist.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The crisp, pungent root of a widely grown cruciferous plant, Raphanus sativus, usually eaten raw: She sliced radishes over the salad.^[16][8][7]
2. The plant itself.^[16][8]
3. With a qualifying word, any of several related, chiefly wild, plants: wild radish.^[7][9][16]
4. A person who professes to be a communist without real commitment.^[7]

Word family

• radishlike
• horseradish

Related words

• radix
• radical
• root
• wort
• eradicate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins