[This entry is an excerpt from the chapter "Spices, herbs, and other condiments" of Part II of the open-source textbook Spanish-English Cognates: An Unconventional Introduction to Spanish Linguistics.]
Go to the listing of entries on spices, herbs and other condiments
Go to the listing of entries on spices, herbs and other condiments
Eng. coriander/cilantro and Sp. cilantro/coriandro & culantro
The plant known as coriander
or cilantro in English is ‘an
aromatic annual Eurasian herb (Coriandrum
sativum) in the parsley family, having parsley-like leaves and umbels of
tiny white to pinkish flowers. It is cultivated for its edible fruits, leafy
shoots, and roots’ (AHD). The word coriander
is also used for ‘the fresh young leafy plantlets of this herb, used in salads
and various dishes as a flavoring and garnish’ (AHD). Other names for this
second sense, the leaves used in cooking, are coriander greens, fresh coriander, coriander herb, Chinese parsley, dhania and, in North America (primarily the US), cilantro, a word borrowed from Spanish
in the early 20th century. Finally, the word coriander is also used for ‘the seed-like fruit of this plant, used
whole or ground as a flavoring for food and as a seasoning, as in curry powder’
(AHD).
The plant is probably native to what is now Iran and it
grows wild in southern Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia. It is
commonly used in the cooking of many cultures, including Asian and Mexican, for
example. The botanical name for this plant is Coriandrum sativum. Coriandrum is a genus of herbs in the
Apiaceae or Umbelliferæ family (also known as the celery, carrot, or parsley
family). In addition to the cultivated species, Coriandrum sativum, there
is a wild species, namely Coriandrum
tordylium.
The word coriander,
pronounced [kɔ.ɹi.ˈæn.dəɹ] (US) or [kɒ.ɹi.ˈæn.dəɹ] (UK), is a 13th or 14th century loanword from French coriandre, which was a loan from Lat. coriandrum, the name for this plant and,
now, also the scientific name of the genus to which this plant belongs. Latin
itself borrowed this word from Greek κορίανδρον
(koríandron), though there was a more common version of this word,
namely κορίαννον (koríannon).
The source of the Greek name is not clear. Some think it is of foreign origin
(a borrowing from a non-Indo-European language), whereas others think it is
derived from the word κόρις (kóris),
the name of a bed bug which would have been given to the plant because of its fetid
smell of the unripe fruit of this plant.
There are also several names for this plant in Spanish: cilantro, coriandro, culantro europeo,
perejil chino, and dania. The name cilantro [sɪ.ˈlæn.tɹoʊ̯] in English is used mostly in the United
States and, as we just mentioned, it is a recent borrowing from Spanish cilantro, dating back to the early 20th century. The Spanish word cilantro is a 17th century alteration of
the traditional name for this plant, which was culantro, itself a popular alteration of the Late Latin version coliandrum of the Latin name coriandrum, displaying some unusual sound
changes. The variant culantro is
first attested around the year 1100 and it is the form preferred for this plant
in many Spanish-speaking countries, though there is another plant that is
native to the Americas that has received this name as well (see below).
Fresh coriander leaves are very common in the cuisine of
Spanish-speaking countries. It is an essential ingredient of Mexican chutney, salsa verde, and guacamole, for example.
Cilantro leaves are never cooked, since cooking destroys its flavor, and it
shouldn’t be dried or frozen either, for the same reason. Some countries
besides Mexico where cilantro is very commonly used are Panama, Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela and parts of Spain.
Coriander seeds are typically used dried in cooking. They
can be ground or crushed. They are used in Indian cooking, for instance, where
they are an ingredient of Indian curry powder. They are also used in the production
of some Belgium wheat beers, German sausages, Russian rye bread, and in native
dishes of Ethiopian and Arab cuisine. Finally, the ground seeds are added to
coffee to make it aromatic in the Middle East.
We have already mentioned the source of the name coriandrum. As for the second word in
the botanical species name, sativum,
it comes from the neuter form of the Latin adjective sătīvus ‘(that is) sown or planted’ (as opposed to agrestis or silvestris ‘that grows wild’). The adjective sătīvus is derived from the stem săt‑ of the passive participle sătum of the verb serĕre
‘to sow, plant, etc.’, by means of the first-second declension adjective-forming
suffix ‑īv‑(us). This verb has left
no descendants in Spanish, where the verb ‘to sow’ is sembrar, a patrimonial descendant from Lat. sēmināre, another word meaning ‘to plant’ and ‘to seed’. Curiously,
however, the Latin verb serĕre
(root: ser‑) is related to the
English verb sow, since they both
descend from the Proto-Indo-European root *se‑,
which is also found in many other English words, such as semen, season, and seed (and also in the Spanish word sembrar that we just saw, and related
Spanish words, such as semilla ‘seed’.
Finally, the adjective sătīvus has
been borrowed into English and Spanish as the rare adjectives Eng. sative and Sp. sátivo/a, both meaning ‘cultivated’, though the English word is now
obsolete.
The early variant culantro
of this plant’s name is used in parts of the Americas, in places such as Perú
and Honduras, for the same plant cilantro
we have been discussing. In other countries, however, the word culantro is reserved for a different
plant, which is native to the tropics of the Americas. The botanical name of
this other plant is Eryngium foetidum, and it goes by a number of names in Spanish,
depending on the region: sacha cilantro
(Peru), cilantro de monte
(Venezuela), chillangua (Ecuador), cimarrón, culantro, alcapate, cilantro de tierra, and recao, among others. In English, this
plant is known primarily as culantro,
shadow beni, Mexican coriander, bhandhania,
or long coriander, though it is not
well-known in North America.
This culantro plant (Eryngium
foetidum) is also from the Apiaceae family, like coriander (Coriandrum sativum), but from a
different genus. It has spiny appearance and a stronger aroma and taste as
coriander. This plant is native to Mexico, Central America, and South America,
and it is not well known in the United States outside immigrant communities
from those regions. According to Wikipedia, this plant
is widely used seasoning, marinating and garnishing in the Caribbean, particularly in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Guyana, Suriname, and in Peru’s Amazon regions. It is also used extensively in Cambodia, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Laos, and other parts of Asia as a culinary herb.[iv]
For example, fresh culantro leaves are an important
ingredient of sancocho, a thick soup containing
meat, plantain, yucca, and other ingredients that is common in South America
and the Caribbean (it has been called the national dish of countries such as
Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Panama). In addition, culantro has been
used in traditional medicine (ethnomedicine) for many ailments, including
problems with the digestive system.
Finally, let us look at the source of the botanical name of
American Eryngium foetidum. The genus
name Eryngium was given to umbelliferous
plants (from the family Apiaceae or Umbelliferæ family) resembling thistles. It
comes from Latin eryngium, the name
of some type of thistle, which comes from Ancient Greek ἠρύγγιον (ērúngion), of uncertain origin. As for the
second part of the species name, foetidum,
this is much clearer, since both English and Spanish have descendants of this
word, namely Eng. fetid (earlier fœtid) and Sp. fétido/a. Lat. foetidum
is the neuter form of the adjective fētĭdus
or foetĭdus that meant ‘that has an
ill smell, stinking, fetid’ (L&S).
[i] Source: “Canelle
Cinnamomum burmannii Luc Viatour” by I, Luc Viatour. Licensed under CC BY-SA
3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canelle_Cinnamomum_burmannii_Luc_Viatour.jpg#/media/File:Canelle_Cinnamomum_burmannii_Luc_Viatour.jpg
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