Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Endive
/ˈɛndaɪv/noun
A salad leaf with a clean bitterness, grown either as a loose curly head or as a tight pale bud.
The Greek roots
ἔντυβον
éntybon
bitter salad plant
Literally: “the bitter salad herb”
Follow a root:ἔντυβον1 word
The story of the word
The chain runs ἔντυβον to Latin intubus, then Medieval Latin endivia, then Old French, then English in the fifteenth century. Ancient writers treated ἔντυβον and κιχόριον as near neighbours, and botanists agree: endive and chicory share the genus Cichorium. The Greek word itself looks borrowed rather than native, with an Egyptian source often proposed.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
In a sentence
Braised endive with butter and a little sugar takes the edge off the bitterness.