Borsch (1808)

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:21 PM -0500 1/19/02, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>    OED has 1884.
>    Merriam-Webster has 1829.
>
>TRAVELS THROUGH SEVERAL PROVINCES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE:
>WITH AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ZAPOROG COSSACKS,
>AND OF BESSARABIA, MOLDAVIA, WALLACHIA, AND THE CRIMEA,
>by Baron Campenhausen
>London: printed for Richard Phillips
>1808
>
>Pg. 28 (KREMENTSCHUK):
>    The inhabitants live almost entirely on flesh; it rarely (Pg.
>29--ed.) happens that they have fish or vegetables to be served on
>their tables.  They have a kind of soup, however, which is made of
>groats and vegetables, of which they are very fond: this soup is
>rather sour, and is called borsch, from the name of the carrot which
>is boiled in it.


 From the carrot?  I've always thought beet was obligatory and
accompanying veggies more or less interchangeable, although there's
the cabbage variant (which sometimes has another name).  Obviously
I'm swimming in cloudy red soup here; anyone else able to
(dis)confirm the Baron's etymology?  The OED is no help, and AHD4
derives it from a word glossed as 'cow parsnip', whatever that is.
(Evidently, that's what borsch(t) used to be made out of before they
realized it would be more colorful with beets.

larry