cilantro

Forms

cilantro m (plural cilantros)^[1] The older and medieval form is culantro, still listed by the Academy as a synonym;^[2] coriandro is the learned form.^[3][4][2] Variants with ce- or ci- include celandro in Lope de Vega and ciliandro about 1605.^[3][5]

Etymology

It continues, in a variant form, inherited from Old Spanish culantro, inherited from Latin coriandrum (“coriander”), a popular alteration of the Latin word.^[3][6][4] The /l/ of the Old Spanish form comes from dissimilation of the two /r/ sounds, as in coliandrum.^[3][7] Corominas finds the forms with ⟨ce-⟩ or ⟨ci-⟩ not well explained: he compares ciliandrum in the Escorial glossary and Catalan celiandre (1249), and suggests the influence of celidonia, another medicinal plant.^[3] Wiktionary instead supposes an unattested regional Vulgar Latin variant with a front vowel.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese coentro, Galician coandro, French coriandre and Italian coriandolo.^[8][9][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κορίανδρον (koríandron), a variant of κορίαννον (koríannon).^[4][10] Beekes takes the Greek word to be Pre-Greek, because of the cluster ⟨-dn-⟩ in the Mycenaean forms.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form cilantro first appears in the Ordenanzas de Ávila of 1485, in a price list of spices: cominos e anis e alcaravia e cilantro seco “cumin and anise and caraway and dried coriander”, sold by the celemín (a dry measure).^[5] Corominas had dated it from a price regulation of 1680, quoted in Autoridades.^[3][11] The older culantro is recorded from about 1100 and was the usual form in the Middle Ages: the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) compares manna to semyent de culantro “coriander seed”.^[6][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish culantro was a medicinal and kitchen herb: Alfonso X's Lapidario mixes a stone with green coriander juice, and his General Estoria explains learned coriandro as the herb called culantro in Castilian.^[13][12] Nebrija gives culantro for Latin coriandrum.^[14] Covarrubias (1611) quotes Laguna's warning that the Spaniards eat green coriander in every dish although elsewhere it is feared as harmful to the brain.^[15]

Spanish settlers brought it to the Americas early: a measure of dried culantro is priced in Puerto Rico in 1512, and Fernández de Oviedo noted in 1549 that the seed had come from Castile and grew well.^[16] Autoridades (1726) defines cilantro only as the same as culantro, but from 1817 the Academy gives the full botanical description under cilantro.^[11][17] In the Canaries cilantro salvaje names a wild umbellifer.^[18] English took cilantro for the leaves of the plant by 1907.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – the Mozarabic form quiántro in a botanical glossary.^[3]
• c. 1200 – culantro in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[12]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses culantro.^[13]
• 1485 – first record of cilantro, in the Ordenanzas de Ávila.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives culantro as the Spanish for coriandrum.^[14]
• 1512 – culantro in Puerto Rico, the first record in the Americas.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives culantro from Latin coriandrum.^[15]
• 1680 – cilantro in a price regulation quoted by Autoridades.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy derives cilantro from Latin ceriandrum.^[20]
• 1907 – English cilantro is recorded.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. coriander, cilantro (Coriandrum sativum): an umbelliferous herb with toothed lower leaves, threadlike upper leaves, small reddish flowers and aromatic seeds, used as a condiment and once as a stomach remedy.^[4][1][21]

Word family

• celindrate

Related words

• culantro
• coriandro
• culantrillo
• Latin coriandrum
• Portuguese coentro

Usage notes

Cilantro, culantro and coriandro name the same plant; the DLE defines culantro by cilantro.^[4][2][21] The diminutive culantrillo (c. 1490) names a fern, not the herb.^[6][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. culantro
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 286
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cilantro
5. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cilantro
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. culantro
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1894
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2232
10. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. κορίαννον
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 349
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. culantro
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cilantro
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 322
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 554
16. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cilantro
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 201
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. cilantro
19. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 224
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cilantro