spice

Pronunciation

• IPA: /spaɪs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English spice, borrowed from Anglo-Norman spece and Old French espice with its first syllable dropped (modern French épice),^[2][3][4][5] from Late Latin speciēs (“spices, goods, wares”), in classical Latin “kind, sort, outward appearance”,^[2][3][4][6] from Latin speciō (“to look”) (see spy).^[6] It is a doublet of species.^[2][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An aromatic or pungent vegetable substance used to flavour food: before 1225 in the OED, probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle in Barnhart.^[8][2] Etymonline adds its use as a medicine or alchemical ingredient, about 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, a pleasing variation, is from the 13th century.^[3] Spices as goods for trade are from about 1300,^[3] and an odour of spices from 1560.^[8][3] An old sense, a sort or kind, is in Wycliffe's “Absteyne you fro al yvel spice”, where the Vulgate has specie;^[7][8] it was later taken over by species.^[7] A slight touch or trace is from the 1530s.^[3] The verb is from before 1325, in spiced,^[2] and to vary or diversify from the 1520s.^[3] Spicy is from 1562, in William Turner's herbal, and racy or salacious from 1844.^[2] Early druggists recognized four kinds of spices: saffron, clove, cinnamon and nutmeg.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1225 – a spice.^[8]
• 13th century – a pleasing variation.^[3]
• 1303 – a sort, kind (obsolete).^[8]
• before 1325 – spiced.^[2]
• 1562 – spicy.^[2]
• 1844 – spicy, racy.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of various aromatic vegetable substances, such as ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg, used to flavour food; such substances as a group.
2. Something that adds zest or interest.
3. A pungent aroma.
4. (rare) A small amount; a trace.
5. (Yorkshire dialect) Sweets; confectionery.
6. (informal) A synthetic drug with effects like those of cannabis.

Verb

1. To season food with spices.
2. To add zest or interest to.

Word family

• spiceless
• spiceable
• spicelike
• spicewood
• allspice
• spiceberry
• spicebush
• spicery

Related words

• five-spice powder
• species
• special
• specie
• spy
• epicure

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press