Everyday LifeGreek → English
Thyme
/taɪm/noun
A low aromatic shrub whose small leaves are used fresh or dried in cooking.
The Greek roots
θύμον
thýmon
thyme
Literally: “the incense herb”
Follow a root:θύμον2 words
The story of the word
The standard derivation ties thýmon to thýein, to burn as an offering, because the herb went on altars as incense; the link is in every dictionary and certain in none. Greeks used the plant as shorthand for hard dry hillside, and the honey of Hymettus took its reputation from thyme flowers. The silent h in English is a Latin spelling habit and the y was put back by scholars after French had ground the word down to tym.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
thymolthymus
In a sentence
Thyme is the one herb in the garden that survives him forgetting to water it.