Q: Two questions on carrots

[Larry Trask]

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According to the Britannica, carrots were cultivated in Mediterranean
Europe in pre-Christian times and in northwest Europe by the 13th century.
But our English word 'carrot', of French origin, is not recorded before
1533, though the earliest attestations suggest that the word was already
familiar by that time.

So,two questions.

1. Is any earlier name recorded in English for the vegetable?

I've looked in the OED for combinations involving 'parsnip', 'turnip' and
'neep', but found nothing.

2. What color-term was applied to carrots before the label 'orange' became
usual in English?

The simple color-term 'orange' is not clearly recorded before 1620, though
there are earlier attestations of things like 'of orange hue', in which the
word appears to be used as we would use, say, 'a lemon-colored scarf'.

I am guessing that carrots might once have been 'red', since carrot-colored
hair has been called 'red' in English for centuries, and still is today.
But I can't find any documentation.

If you know anything about this, please reply to me privately, and I'll
post a summary.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)