Smallages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Wild celery plants, a species of Apium with bitter, strongly flavoured leaves and stalks grown in marshes
2. Bitter-tasting herbs of the celery family, often found growing wild in damp ground and marshy places
3. Plants that are the wild ancestors of cultivated celery, valued historically for their medicinal and culinary uses

Etymology: Smallages is the plural of smallage, an old name for wild celery, the bitter, strong-smelling plant that grows in marshes and damp ditches. The base word is a compound of "small" and "ache," the medieval English name for celery, which came from Old French "ache" and ultimately from Latin "apium." The "small" distinguished the wild plant from its cultivated relative, garden celery, which had been bred to be bigger and milder. Smallage was once used as a herb and in medicine, and its name kept the older "ache" long after gardeners had moved on to calling their crop by a different name.

Synonyms: wild celery