Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Origin and history of cole

cole(n.1)

"cabbage," a dialectal survival of Middle English col, from late Old English cawel, or perhaps from or influenced by cognate Old Norse kal. Both words are from Latin caulis "stem, stalk" (which in Vulgar Latin replaced brassica as the usual word for "cabbage"), from Proto-Italic *kauli- "stalk," from PIE root *(s)kehuli- "stem of a plant, stalk" (source also of Old Irish cual "faggot, bundle of sticks," Greek kaulos "stem, stalk, pole," Armenian c'awl "stalk, straw," Old Prussian kaulan, Lithuanian káulas "bone").

Latin caulis "cabbage" is the source also of Italian cavolo, Spanish col, Old French chol, French chou; it also was borrowed elsewhere in Germanic, for example Swedish kål, Danish kaal, German Kohl, Dutch kool.

cole(n.2)

"trickery deceit," an obsolete 16c. word "of unknown etymology, and even of uncertain existence" [OED], inferred from words in several texts dating to c. 1300, "some of which might possibly be explained otherwise." These include notably cole-pixy "mischievous fairy" (1540s), a southwestern England dialect word (later colt-pixie) and cole-prophet "pretended mystical fortune-teller."

also from 16c.

Entries linking to cole

cauliflower(n.)

variety of cabbage in which the young inflorescence forms a fleshy white head, 1590s, originally cole florye, from Italian cavoli fiori "flowered cabbage," plural of cavolo "cabbage" + fiore "flower" (from Latin flora, from PIE root *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom").

The first element is from Latin caulis "cabbage" (originally "stem, stalk;" see cole (n.1) ) which was borrowed into Germanic and is the source of the cole in cole-slaw and of Scottish kale. The front end of the word was re-Latinized from 18c.; the back end was influenced by flower (n.). The boxer's cauliflower ear, swollen and deformed by blunt trauma, is from 1907.

cauline(adj.)

"pertaining to or growing on a stem," 1756, from Latin caulis "stalk" (see cole (n.1) ). Also see -ine (1).

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Trends of cole

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

cole-slaw

also coleslaw, cole slaw, "finely chopped cabbage dressed with vinegar, salt, etc. and eaten as a salad," 1794 ("A piece of sliced cabbage, by Dutchmen ycleped cold slaw"), American English, a partial translation of Dutch koolsla, literally "cabbage salad," from kool "cabbage" (s

spiv

stock figure in the English social comedy, represented on screen by such stereotypes as 'Flash Harry' (played by George Cole...

caterpillar

An Old English name for it was cawelworm "cole-worm."...

rum

.: also queere = base, roguish; queer-bung = an empty purse; queer-cole = bad money; queer-diver = a bungling pickpocket;...

Beguine

Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" (1935) refers to a kind of popular dance of West Indian origin, from French colloquial...

coal

substance, either burning or having been burned," from Proto-Germanic *kula(n) (source also of Old Frisian kole, Middle Dutch cole...

one

One of those things "unpredictable occurrence" is from 1934 (Cole Porter's song is from 1935)....

cabbage

type of cultivated culinary vegetable that grows a rounded head of thick leaves, mid-15c., caboge, from Old North French caboche "head" (in dialect, "cabbage"), from Old French caboce "head," a diminutive from Latin caput "head" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Earlier in Middle E

lake

"body of water surrounded by land and filling a depression or basin," early 12c., from Old French lack (12c., Modern French lac) and directly from Latin lacus "pond, pool, lake," also "basin, tank, reservoir" (related to lacuna "hole, pit"), from PIE *laku- "body of water, lake,

leak

"to let water in or out" [Johnson], late 14c., from Middle Dutch leken "to drip, to leak," or from Old Norse leka, both of them related to Old English leccan "to moisten, water, irrigate" (which did not survive into Middle English), all from Proto-Germanic *lek- "deficiency" (sou

Share cole

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Trending

Dictionary entries near cole

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.