Etymologically
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spice

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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

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