Everyday LifeGreek → English
Carrot
/ˈkærət/noun
A tapering orange root eaten as a vegetable.
The Greek roots
καρωτόν
karōtón
carrot plant
Literally: “the karoton plant”
Follow a root:καρωτόν2 words
The story of the word
Greek named the plant before Rome did. Latin took καρωτόν as carota, French passed carotte to English in the sixteenth century, and the vowel has been sliding ever since. Ancient carrots were purple, white or yellow, grown as much for their seed and their medicine as for the root; the orange kind is a Dutch selection from the seventeenth century. Some etymologists link καρωτόν to κάρα, head, though the connection is not settled.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
He scraped the carrots straight into the pot without peeling them.