Oleracea

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A term used in botany to refer to a group of plants within the species Brassica, often cultivated for food
2. Referring to various leafy vegetables or their varieties, commonly belonging to the Brassica family
3. Describing plants that are typically grown for their edible leaves, such as cabbage and kale, part of a larger botanical classification

Etymology: "Oleracea" is the Latin adjective "oleraceus," meaning "of vegetables" or "of pot-herbs," derived from "olus" (genitive "oleris"), the Latin word for a kitchen herb or garden green. Botanists adopted it as a species epithet, so names like Brassica oleracea (cabbage, kale, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts) carry the sense "the vegetable plant." The name's meaning is unusually literal: it tells you the plant belongs to the category of greens grown for the table rather than for ornament or medicine. Linnaeus and his contemporaries drew on classical Latin vocabulary like this when naming species, so the epithet preserves an older Roman distinction between garden produce and other plants.