Everyday LifeGreek → English
Anise
/ˈænɪs/noun
A Mediterranean plant whose seeds carry a strong liquorice flavour.
The Greek roots
ἄνισον
ánison
anise, dill
Literally: “anise or dill”
Follow a root:ἄνισον1 word
The story of the word
ἄνισον named a seed the Greeks cooked with and dosed themselves with, and they confused it constantly with ἄνηθον, dill: similar umbel, similar smell, different plant. Rome inherited the confusion, Old French passed on anis, and English had anise by the fourteenth century. Star anise is unrelated botanically, an Asian tree fruit that borrowed the name for tasting the same.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
aniseedanisette
In a sentence
A little anise in the dough is what makes the biscuits taste like Christmas.