Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Tarragon
/ˈtærəɡən/noun
An aniseed-scented herb used in French cooking, especially with chicken, eggs and béarnaise sauce.
The Greek roots
δρακόντιον
drakóntion
little dragon, dragonwort
Literally: “little dragon”
Follow a root:δρακόντιον1 word
The story of the word
The name may have travelled from a Greek dragon to a French kitchen. Greek δρακόντιον, little dragon, was a plant name given to species with serpent-like roots, and Arabic ṭarkhūn is usually traced back to it, giving Medieval Latin tarchon and French estragon. Not every scholar accepts the chain, since the Arabic form could be native, but the dragon reading explains why old English herbals list the plant as dragon-wort.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Arabic → Medieval Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
dragondraconian
In a sentence
She stripped the tarragon leaves straight into the vinegar and left the jar on the sill for a month.
Most supermarket tarragon is the Russian sort, which tastes of almost nothing.