Carrot

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkæɹ.ət/

Definitions

1. A long, orange root vegetable that grows underground and is commonly eaten raw or cooked
2. A bright orange edible root vegetable found underground, often enjoyed fresh in salads or cooked in various dishes
3. This underground vegetable, typically orange in color, is valued for its crunchy texture and is used in a range of culinary applications

Etymology: The carrot's name traces back to the Greek "karōton," which was a word for an edible root, and the vegetable itself was once very different from the orange one we know. Early carrots were often purple, white or yellow, and the orange cultivar was developed much later. The name passed through Latin as "carōta" and then into Middle French as "carotte," and English borrowed it as "karette" in the Middle English period, before the spelling settled into its modern form. English did not start out with this word for the vegetable. It displaced an older native term, "more," from Old English, which meant "edible root, parsnip, carrot" and is related to German "Möhre." The borrowed word won out, so the old name survived only in dialect and in the German cognate. The word is a doublet of "carotte" and is related to "caraway," which shares the same Greek ancestor. Its orange colour gave rise to a separate, slangy use: the stick-and-carrot idea of rewarding someone to motivate them is a figurative extension, and felt makers also used the verb form to describe furs turning orange as they dried.

Synonyms: vegetable, root, produce, food, snack