Curcuma

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A genus of small perennial plants that produce aromatic rhizomes, often utilized as culinary spices and in herbal remedies
2. A group of herbaceous plants with distinctive yellow-orange underground stems, utilized mainly for flavoring dishes and providing health benefits
3. A type of flowering plant characterized by its underground rhizomes that are frequently used in cuisine and traditional medicine

Etymology: The name points to saffron, not to the plant it now denotes. The Arabic "kurkum" meant saffron, and medieval Latin borrowed it as "curcuma" for a yellow spice that was often confused with, or sold as, the costlier saffron crocus. Its color was the point: the dye and the spice were both golden-yellow, and the name followed the color rather than the plant's botany. When Carl Linnaeus formally classified plants in the 1750s, he adopted "Curcuma" as the name of a genus. The spice came from one species, "Curcuma longa," which we know as turmeric, but the genus now includes many other rhizome-bearing plants from tropical Asia and Australia. The English word "curcuma" is used mainly in botanical and scientific contexts, while "turmeric" remains the everyday name for the spice.