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Origin and history of kale

kale(n.)

also kail, "cabbage, any kind of greens with curled or wrinkled leaves," c. 1300, a variant of cawul (see cole (n.1)), surviving in Scottish and northern English. Slang meaning "money" is from 1902, from the notion of leaves of green.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to kale

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.

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.

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    Trends of kale

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

    More to explore

    bread
    "kind of food made from flour or the meal of some grain, kneaded into a dough, fermented, and baked," Old English bread "bit, crumb, morsel; bread," cognate with Old Norse brauð, Danish brød, Old Frisian brad, Middle Dutch brot, Dutch brood, German Brot. According to one theory [
    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
    dough
    "mass of flour or meal moistened and mixed for baking," Middle English dogh, from Old English dag "dough," from Proto-Germanic *daigaz "something kneaded" (source also of Old Norse deig, Swedish deg, Middle Dutch deech, Dutch deeg, Old High German teic, German Teig, Gothic daigs
    scratch
    c. 1400, scracchen, transitive, "mark or wound slightly on the surface by a scraping or tearing action with something rough, sharp, or pointed," probably a fusion of Middle English scratten and crachen, both meaning "to scratch," both of uncertain origin. Also compare scr-. Relat
    lettuce
    garden herb extensively cultivated for use as a salad, late 13c., letuse, probably somehow from Old French laitues, plural of laitue "lettuce" (cognate with Spanish lechuga, Italian lattuga), from Latin lactuca "lettuce," from lac (genitive lactis) "milk" (from PIE root *g(a)lag-
    Argus
    hundred-eyed giant of Greek mythology, late 14c., from Latin, from Greek Argos, literally "the bright one," from argos "shining, bright" (from PIE root *arg- "to shine; white"). His epithet was Panoptes "all-eyes." After his death, Hera transferred his eyes to the peacock's tail.
    loot
    "goods taken from an enemy, etc.," 1802 (in Charles James's "Military Dictionary," London, which defines it as "Indian term for plunder or pillage"), Anglo-Indian, from Hindi lut, from Sanskrit loptram, lotram "booty, stolen property," from PIE *roup-tro-, from root *reup- "to sn
    tool
    Old English tol "instrument, implement used by a craftsman or laborer, weapon," from Proto-Germanic *tōwalan "implement" (source also of Old Norse tol), from a verb stem represented by Old English tawian "prepare" (see taw). The ending is the instrumental suffix -el (1). The figu
    cruel
    c. 1200, "stern;" early 13c., of suffering, death, etc., "attended by much distress;" c. 1300, "inclined or willing to make another suffer, disposed to inflict suffering, mental or physical, on any sentient being," from Old French cruel (12c.), earlier crudel, from Latin crudelis
    lucre
    "gain in money or goods, profit," late 14c., from Old French lucre, from Latin lucrum "material gain, advantage, profit; wealth, riches," of uncertain origin. De Vaan says from Proto-Italic *lukro-, from PIE *lhu-tlo- "seizure, gain," with cognates in Greek apolauo "take hold of,

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