Index:

artichoke cardones, scolimbos

back to top

Season:

Culinary:

Medical:

Agricultural:

Etymology

"thistle-like plant," also "the head of the flower stem, used as food," 1530s, from articiocco, Northern Italian variant of Italian arcicioffo, from Old Spanish alcarchofa, from Arabic al-hursufa "artichoke." The Northern Italian variation probably is from influence of ciocco "stump."

Folk etymology has twisted the word in English; the ending is probably influenced by choke, and early forms of the word in English include archecokk, hortichock, artychough, hartichoake, reflecting various folk-etymologies from French and Latin words.

The plant is native to the Mediterranean and was known to the Romans and Greeks (cardoon); the modern, improved variant seems to have been bred in North Africa (hence the new, Arabic name) and reached Italy by mid-15c. It was introduced into England in the reign of Henry VIII. French artichaut (16c.), German Artischocke (16c.) are from Italian, and from the same source come Russian artishoku, Polish karczock.

Notes:

scolimbos is called 'unbroad thistle'
only known from Wrights Vocab and the Durham Glossary

Literary:

'cardones' in the Capitulare de villis possibly translated as cardoons - a type of artichoke. Not native to Britain, but may have been traded.

Species and Find sites:

asparagus eorþ-nafela

back to top

Season:

May - June

Culinary:

Medical:

Genim ðysse wyrte wyrttruman ðe man sparagi agrestis, and óðrum naman wuducerfillu nemneþ 'take of this plant plant-roots which is sparagi agrestis and another name wood chervil called

Agricultural:

Notes:

Literary:

Wrights Vocab states Wood chervil is also brassica and pastinaca as well as speragus!
eorþ-nafela - earth-navel may also be asparagus according to some scholars

Species and Find sites:

Cockayne gives the name Asparagus acutifolius

Etymology

plant cultivated for its edible shoots, late 14c., aspergy; late Old English sparage, from Latin asparagus (in Medieval Latin often sparagus), from Greek asparagos/aspharagos, which is of uncertain origin; perhaps with euphonic a- + PIE root *sp(h)er(e)g- "to spring up," but Beekes suggests "it is rather a substrate word," based in part on the p/ph variation.

In Middle English, asperages sometimes was regarded as a plural, with false singular aspergy.

beans beon, beana, bean

back to top

Season:

June - September

Culinary:

cooked with salt.
cooked in floured bags in a cauldron with barley and bacon. The vegetables dried or fresh would absorb the salt.
bread was accompanied by 'meat or cheese or beans'
bean flour used in times of famine

Medical:

leechdoms makes one reference to bean meal
warns against beans among other things as causing wind.
'bean soup' (beonbroð) recommended
genim celender & beana togædre gesodene 'take coriander and beans together cooked'
'rubbed dry beans and boil without salt' (adrige beana 7 geseop buton sealte)

Agricultural:

threshed and stored in a barn

Notes:

were dried
dried beans eaten in winter

Literary:

the novice monk from Ælfric's Colloquy (late 10th Century) ate 'beans' (beana)
eaten at Prandium (the midday meal) of the Rule of St Benedict
Regularis Concordia states the normal midday meal was to consist of two cooked dishes, to be eaten as an accompaniment to bread - cereals, beans or other pulse, eggs, cheese, etc
the female slave received among other things one sester of beans for Lenten food
a homily refers to travellers provisioning themselves with 'beans moistened with water'
a wise reeve (gerefa) should sow beans in spring

Species and Find sites:

Vicia faba var minor (horse-bean) identified at:
- Fishergate, Norwich (10th - 12th c.)
- and 8 other sites
Vicia Faba (Fava / Field / Broad Bean) identified at 7 sites

Etymology

Old English bean "bean, pea, legume," from Proto-Germanic *bauno (source also of Old Norse baun, Middle Dutch bone, Dutch boon, Old High German bona, German Bohne), and related to Latin faba "bean;" Greek phakos "lentil;" Albanian bathë "horse-bean;" Old Prussian babo, Russian bob "bean," but the original form is obscure. Watkins suggests a PIE reduplicated root *bha-bhā- "broad bean;" de Vaan writes that the Italic, Slavic and Germanic "are probably independent loanwords from a European substratum word of the form *bab- (or similar) 'bean'."

beet bete

back to top

Season:

June - October

Culinary:

stewed to a pulp in 'a kettle' (an cetele)

Medical:

contain Vitamin C and were recommended by Leechdoms to guard against 'the evil humours' (þa yflan wætan)
bete is good for a sound stomach
drænc of ðære bétan anre 'a drink of the beet alone' for lung disease
betan leafum 'leaves of beet' for erysipelas
Nim ða bétan, ðe gehw%r weaxaþ 'take the beet which anywhere growath'
béte ðe biþ ánsteallet 'beet which be-eth one-stalked'

Notes:

Sugar Beet and Mangelwurzel are varieties of beet that were developed in the 18th century

Literary:

Species and Find sites:

Beta vulgaris maritima (Sea Beet) native to Britain, is the wild ancestor of many cultivated beets.
Beta vulgaris (includes many subspecies such as Beetroot, Swiss Chard and Spinach) identified at:
- Fishergate, Norwich (10th/12th c.)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- The Bedern, York (580-900)

Agricultural:

Etymology

plant growing wild in northern Europe, cultivated for use of its succulent root as food and for sugar extraction, Old English bete "beet, beetroot," from Latin beta, which is said to be of Celtic origin. Common in Old English, then lost till c. 1400. Still usually spoken of in plural in U.S. A general West Germanic borrowing, cognates: Old Frisian bete, Middle Dutch bete, Old High German bieza, German Beete.

cabbage brassica, cawel, caul

back to top

Season:

all year

Culinary:

Almost all parts of this species have been developed for food, including the root (swede, turnip), stems (kohlrabi), leaves (cabbage, collard greens, kale), flowers (cauliflower, broccoli), buds (Brussels sprouts, cabbage), and seeds (many, including mustard seed, and oil-producing rapeseed).

Notes:

Literary:

brassica is the Latin

Species and Find sites:

Brassica cf. oleracea (wild cabbage) identified at:
- Hungate, York - Anglo-Scandinavian
- Lloyds Bank, 6-8 Pavement, York - Anglo-Scandinavian

Medical:

þas wyrta sindon eác betste to þon & ea# begeatra - bete - & mealwe - & brassica 'These plants are also best for that and easily begotten - beet, mallow, and cabbage'
gesodenne cawel on godum bro#e 'cooked cole in good broth'
brassicam silvaticam & o#rum naman caul 'brassica silvatica and by another name cabbage'

Agricultural:

Etymology

type of cultivated culinary vegetable that grows a rounded head of thick leaves, mid-15c., caboge, from Old North French caboche "head" (in dialect, "cabbage"), from Old French caboce "head," a diminutive from Latin caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Earlier in Middle English as caboche (late 14c.).

The decline of "ch" to "j" in the unaccented final syllable parallels the common pronunciation of spinach, sandwich, Greenwich, etc. The comparison of a head of cabbage to the head of a person (usually disparaging to the latter) is at least as old as Old French cabus "(head of) cabbage; nitwit, blockhead," from Italian capocchia, diminutive of capo.

Pliny first called them 'brassica'.

carrot more, feld-more

back to top

Season:

all year

Culinary:

Medical:

field root occurs in many remedies

Agricultural:

Etymology

common name of plants of the genus Daucus, cultivated from ancient times for their large, tapering, edible root, c. 1500, karette, from French carrotte, from Latin carota, from Greek karoton "carrot," probably from PIE *kre-, from root *ker- (1) "horn; head," and so called for its horn-like shape.

A Middle English name for the wild carrot was dauke (late 14c.), from Latin.

Notes:

Originally white-rooted and a medicinal plant to the ancients, who used it as an aphrodisiac and to prevent poisoning.
Not entirely distinguished from parsnips in ancient times.
Reintroduced in Europe by Arabs c.1100.
The orange carrot, perhaps as early as 6c., probably began as a mutation of the Asian purple carrot and was cultivated into the modern edible plant 16c.-17c. in the Netherlands.

Literary:

feld = field, more= edible root

Species and Find sites:

Daucus carota identified at:
- Milk Street, London - occupation layers (Saxon/Norman)
- Sadler Street, Durham - pit and midden fill (593-1203)
- Graveney Boat, Kent - wreck fill (900-1000)
- Lloyds Bank, York - occupation layers (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Abbotts Worthy, Winchester - pits and an SFB (middle Saxon)
- Little Paxton, St. Neots - pit fill (850-1000)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)

celery merce, merece

back to top

Season:

all year

Culinary:

Medical:

celery seed, leaf and lower parts are called for in Leechdoms
an early 11th C cure recommends that it be taken in wine for toothache (Cotton Vespasian DXX folio 93)
there are 15 other references to it in Anglo-Saxon herbals

Agricultural:

Etymology

umbelliferous European plant long cultivated as food, 1660s, sellery, from French céleri (17c., originally sceleri d'Italie), said by French sources to be from Italian (Lombard dialect) seleri (singular selero), from Late Latin selinon, from Greek selinon "parsley" (in Medieval Greek "celery"), a word of uncertain origin.

The c- spelling, attested by 1719 in English, is from French.

Middle English words for "wild celery" include merch(e), apium, wọ̄de-merche, wọ̄de-rove, fen, āche, smā̆l-ā̆che and selinum.

Notes:

aka smallage

Literary:

cooked and eaten everyday according to Ælfric Bata
occurs in a Latin charm
occurs in glosses

Species and Find sites:

Apium graveolens (wild celery) identified at:
- Milk St., City of London - pit fill (Saxo-Norman)
- Magistrates Court, Norwich - pit fill (Whitefriars St. site) - 1000-1150
- Whitefriars St., Norwich - accumulation layers (975-1100)
- Lloyds Bank York, 6-8 Pavement - occupation floors (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Abbotts Worthy, WInchester - pit fill (middle Saxon)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)

cole cawel, caul

back to top

Season:

all year

Culinary:

Almost all parts of this species have been developed for food, including the root (swede, turnip), stems (kohlrabi), leaves (cabbage, collard greens, kale), flowers (cauliflower, broccoli), buds (Brussels sprouts, cabbage), and seeds (many, including mustard seed, and oil-producing rapeseed).

Medical:

þas wyrta sindon eác betste to þon & ea# begeatra - bete - & mealwe - & brassica 'These plants are also best for that and easily begotten - beet, mallow, and cabbage'
gesodenne cawel on godum bro#e 'cooked cole in good broth'
brassicam silvaticam & o#rum naman caul 'brassica silvatica and by another name cabbage'

Notes:

Literary:

brassica silvatica is the Latin name given in Herbarium Apuleius

Species and Find sites:

Brassica cf. oleracea (wild cabbage) identified at:
- Hungate, York - Anglo-Scandinavian
- Lloyds Bank, 6-8 Pavement, York - Anglo-Scandinavian

Agricultural:

Etymology

"cabbage," a dialectal survival of Middle English col, from late Old English cawel, or perhaps from or influenced by cognate Old Norse kal. Both words are from Latin caulis "stem, stalk" (which in Vulgar Latin replaced brassica as the usual word for "cabbage"), from Proto-Italic *kauli- "stalk," from PIE root *(s)kehuli- "stem of a plant, stalk" (source also of Old Irish cual "faggot, bundle of sticks," Greek kaulos "stem, stalk, pole," Armenian c'awl "stalk, straw," Old Prussian kaulan, Lithuanian káulas "bone").

Latin caulis "cabbage" is the source also of Italian cavolo, Spanish col, Old French chol, French chou; it also was borrowed elsewhere in Germanic, for example Swedish kål, Danish kaal, German Kohl, Dutch kool.

garlic gar-leac

back to top

Season:

June to August

Culinary:

Medical:

Genim garleac & cipan 'take garlic and onion'
Garleaces iii clufe 'three cloves of garlic
Genim gárleáces þreó heáfdu 'take three heads of garlic'
Nim gárleáces gódne d%l 'take a good deal of garlic'
6 other remedies

Notes:

Literary:

Species and Find sites:

Alium sativum (garlic) identified at:
- Eastgate, Beverley, Humberside (pre 8th c.)

Agricultural:

Etymology

"onion like bulbous plant allied to the leek, known to the ancients and much used in cookery," Middle English garlek, from Old English garlec (West Saxon), garleac (Mercian), "garlic," from gar "spear" (in reference to the clove) + leac "leek".

leek leac, porr

back to top

Season:

November to April

Culinary:

Medical:

Nim ðes leáces heáfda 'take the heads of this leek'
leac occurs in 6 remedies
porr occurs in 4 remedies

Agricultural:

Notes:

a cultivar of Allium ampeloprasum, the broadleaf wild leek

Literary:

occurs in many compounds referring to other plants?: bráde-, cráw-, crop-, enne[ynne-], gár-, hot-, hwíte-, por-, secg

Species and Find sites:

Allium porrum (leek) identified at:
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)

Etymology

pungent bulbous culinary herb of the genus Allium, related to the onion, long the national badge of the Welsh, Old English læc (Mercian), leac (West Saxon) "leek, onion, garlic," from Proto-Germanic *lauka- (source also of Old Norse laukr "leek, garlic," Danish løg, Swedish lök "onion," Old Saxon lok "leek," Middle Dutch looc, Dutch look "leek, garlic," Old High German louh, German Lauch "leek").

No certain cognates outside Germanic; Finnish laukka, Russian luk-, Old Church Slavonic luku are said to be from Germanic. Also the final element in garlic.

lettuce lactuca, leáh-tric, wudu-leáctric

back to top

Season:

Culinary:

Medical:

lactuca occurs in 4 remedies
leah-tric occurs in 3 remedies
wuduleahtric occurs in 2 remedies

Agricultural:

Etymology

garden herb extensively cultivated for use as a salad, late 13c., letuse, probably somehow from Old French laitues, plural of laitue "lettuce" (cognate with Spanish lechuga, Italian lattuga), from Latin lactuca "lettuce," from lac (genitive lactis) "milk" (from PIE root *g(a)lag- "milk"); so called for the milky juice of the plant.

Old English had borrowed the Latin word as lactuce.

Notes:

wuduleahtric = wild lettuce; lactuca is the Latin

Literary:

Lactuca hátte seó wyrt ðe hí etan sceoldon mid ðám þeorfum hláfum heó is biter on þigene 'lettuce was the name of the herb that they were to eat with the unleavened loaves; it is bitter in the eating' - Homilies

Species and Find sites:

onion ciepe, cipe, eneleác, hwít-leác, ynne-leác, hol-leác

back to top

Season:

August and September

Culinary:

Medical:

Twá cipan oððe þreó gebr%d on ahsan 'two onions or three roasted in ashes'

Agricultural:

Notes:

Literary:

compounds in leac only occur in glosses

Species and Find sites:

Etymology

early 12c., ungeon, oinyon, unione, "the underground bulb of the common onion plant," from Anglo-French union, Old French oignon "onion" (formerly also oingnon), and directly from Latin unionem (nominative unio), a colloquial rustic Roman word for a kind of onion, also "pearl" (via the notion of a string of onions), literally "one, unity." The sense connection is the unity of the successive layers of an onion, in contrast with garlic or cloves.

Old English had ynne (in ynne-leac), from the same Latin source, which also produced Irish inniun, Welsh wynwyn and similar words in Germanic. In Dutch, the ending in -n was mistaken for a plural inflection and new singular ui formed. The usual Indo-European name is represented by Greek kromion, Irish crem, Welsh craf, Old English hramsa, Lithuanian kermušė.

The usual Latin word was cepa, a loan from an unknown language; it is the source of Old French cive, Old English cipe, and, via Late Latin diminutive cepulla, Italian cipolla, Spanish cebolla, Polish cebula. German Zwiebel also is from this source, but altered by folk etymology in Old High German (zwibolla) from words for "two" and "ball."

parsnip pastinaca, feld-more, more

back to top

Season:

August to March

Culinary:

Medical:

feld-more and more occur in several remedies

Notes:

pastinaca is the Latin name; feld-more and more (field-root and root respectively) are also translated as carrot!

Literary:

Agricultural:

Etymology

biennial plant of Eurasia; its pale yellow root has been used as a food from ancient times; c. 1500, parsnepe, a corruption (by influence of Middle English nepe "turnip;") of Middle English passenep (late 14c.), from Old French pasnaise "parsnip," also "male member" (Modern French panais) and directly from Latin pastinaca "parsnip, carrot," from pastinum "two-pronged fork" (related to pastinare "to dig up the ground"). The plant was so called from the shape of the root. The parsnip was considered a kind of turnip. The unetymological -r- in the English word is unexplained; cognate Old High German, German, and Dutch pastinak are closer to the Latin original.

Species and Find sites:

Pastinaca sativa (parsnip) identified at:
- Whitefriars Street, Norwich (830-1200)
- St. Aldgates, Oxford (1000-1100)
- Little Paxton, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire (850-1000)
- Lloyds Bank, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)

peas pise, pysan

back to top

Season:

June to August

Culinary:

Medical:

Geseáwe pýsan 'juicy peas' must be given as part of a sick man's diet
Stánas on pysna mycelnysse 'stones the size of peas' referring to another herb
pisan ofþænda & gesodena ón ecede 'peas moistened and cooked in vinegar' for a sore stomach
pysena broþ 'broth of peas' allegedly restrains the stomach!
should be avoided in the case of liver trouble

Agricultural:

Etymology

"the seed of a hardy leguminous vine," a well-known article of food, early or mid-17c., a false singular from Middle English pease (plural pesen), which was both single and collective (as wheat, corn) but the "s" sound was mistaken for the plural inflection. From Old English pise (West Saxon), piose (Mercian) "pea," from Late Latin pisa, variant of Latin pisum "pea," probably a loan-word from Greek pison "the pea," a word of unknown origin (Klein suggests it is from Thracian or Phrygian).

Notes:

Literary:

Species and Find sites:

Pisum sativum (garden/field pea) identified at:
- Milk St, London - pit fills (Saxon/Norman)
- St. Aldgates, Oxford - charcoal fire layer (1000-1100)
- Castle Acre, Swaffham - ditch fill (1000-1100)
- Lloyds Bank, York - occupation layers (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Abbotts Worthy, Winchester - pits (middle Saxon)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Poundbury, Dorchester - grain drier and feature fill (300-650)
- Staunch Meadow (middle Saxon)

radish r%dic, ancre, antre, ontre,

back to top

Season:

May to mid October

Culinary:

Medical:

eating a radish guards against women's chatter
Redic ete %r ne mæg ðé nán man áttre áwyrdan 'if you have eaten radish, nobody can injure you by poison'
given to eat for poor appetite and nausea (appetizers)

Agricultural:

Etymology

cruciferous plant cultivated from antiquity for its crisp, slightly pungent, edible root, Middle English radich, from late Old English rædic "radish," from Latin radicem (nominative radix) "root, radish" (from PIE root *wrād- "branch, root"). The spelling in English is perhaps influenced by Old French radise, variant of radice, from Vulgar Latin *radicina, from radicem.

Notes:

Literary:

glossed as raphanus

Species and Find sites:

Raphanus raphanistrum (wild radish) identified at:
- The Bedern, York - pit fill (580-900)
- Milk St, London - pit fills (Saxon/Norman)
- Sadler Street, Durham - pit and midden fill (593-1203)
- Magistrates Court, Norwich - pit fill (Whitefriars St. site) - 1000-1150
- General Accident, York - pit fill (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Whitefriars Street, Norwich - accumulation layers (975-1100)
- Lloyds Bank, York - occupation layers (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Lurk Lane, Beverley - ditch fills (800-900)
- West Stow, Bury St. Edmunds - inside SFB (5th - 7th C)

swede

back to top

Season:

mid October to late February

Culinary:

Medical:

Agricultural:

Etymology

Notes:

The species Brassica napus originated as a hybrid between the cabbage (Brassica oleracea) and the turnip (Brassica rapa).

Literary:

Species and Find sites:

Brassica napus (Swedish turnip) identified at:
- Hungate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Lloyds Bank, 6-8 Pavement, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)

turnip n%p

back to top

Season:

June to July

Culinary:

Medical:

Ængliscne n%p 'English turnip'

Agricultural:

Etymology

c. 1500, turnepe, probably from turn (from its shape, as though turned on a lathe) + Middle English nepe "turnip," from Old English næp, from Latin napus "turnip."

Notes:

Literary:

glossed as both napus and rapa

Species and Find sites:

Brassica rapa (turnip) identified at:
- Lloyds Bank, 6-8 Pavement, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)
- Sadler St., Durham (593-1203)
- Eastgate, Beverley, Humberside (pre 8th c.)
- Coppergate, York (Anglo-Scandinavian)

Vegetables

Index:

A

artichoke cardones, scolimbos

asparagus eorþ-nafela

B

beans beon, beana, bean

beet bete

C

cabbage brassica, cawel, caul

carrot more, feld-more

celery merce, merece

cole cawel, caul

G

garlic gar-leac

L

leek leac, porr

lettuce lactuca, leáh-tric, wudu-leáctric

O

onion ciepe, cipe, eneleác, hwít-leác, ynne-leác, hol-leác

P

parsnip pastinaca, feld-more, more

peas pise, pysan

R

radish r%dic, ancre, antre, ontre,

S

swede

T

turnip n%p