Everyday LifeGreek → English
Asparagus
/əˈspærəɡəs/noun
A spring vegetable eaten as tender green spears.
The Greek roots
ἀσπάραγος
aspáragos
asparagus shoot
Literally: “asparagus shoot”
Follow a root:ἀσπάραγος1 word
The story of the word
The Greek noun is often linked to σπαράσσειν, to tear, on the idea of a shoot torn from the ground, but the connection is far from secure and the word may be a loan from an older Mediterranean language. English borrowed it twice: the learned Latin form asparagus in the sixteenth century, and the folk version sparrow-grass, which was standard polite usage in the eighteenth. Sparrow-grass survives in country speech.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
Six minutes in boiling water is enough for asparagus that thin.