fenugreek

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun annual herb or southern Europe and eastern Asia having off-white flowers and aromatic seeds used medicinally and in curry
noun aromatic seeds used as seasoning especially in curry

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English fenygreke, borrowed from Old French fenigrec, from Latin foenum-graecum (literally “Greek hay”), from foenum (“hay”, variant of faenum) + graecus (“Greek”).

In classic literature

Other herbs and plants there are which retain the names of the countries from whence they were transported, as the Median apples from Media, where they first grew; Punic apples from Punicia, that is to say, Carthage; Ligusticum, which we call lovage, from Liguria, the coast of Genoa; Rhubarb from a flood in Barbary, as Ammianus attesteth, called Ru; Santonica from a region of that name; Fenugreek from Greece; Gastanes from a country so called; Persicaria from Persia; Sabine from a territory of that appellation; Staechas from the Staechad Islands; Spica Celtica from the land of the Celtic Gauls, and so throughout a great many other, which were tedious to enumerate. — Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais
She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, ‘Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and now we’ll keep house.’ That night, Best Beloved, they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones, and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild duck stuffed with wild rice and wild fenugreek and wild coriander; and marrow-bones of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas. — Just so stories, Rudyard Kipling

Synonyms

Greek clover, Trigonella foenumgraecum

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fenugreek

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