Carraway - Names and History

Names and History

The etymology of caraway is complex and poorly understood.

Caraway has been called by many names in different regions, with names deriving from the Latin cuminum (cumin), the Greek karon (again, cumin), which was adapted into Latin as carum (now meaning caraway), and the Sanskrit karavi, sometimes translated as "caraway" but other times understood to mean "fennel." The Italian finocchio meridionale (meridian fennel) suggests these shared roots, while cumino tedesco (German cumin) again points towards cumin—though caraway also has its own name in Italian, caro . Other languages share similar peculiarities, with the Norwegian name karve, Yiddish borrowing the German Kümmel (caraway) as kimmel to mean caraway, yet using the Semitic term kamoon for cumin, which is Kreuzkümmel in German. In Iran it’s called “Zireh”, which mostly cultivated in Kerman province in the south east of the country. In India it is commonly called Shahi Jeera.

English usage of the term caraway dates back to at least 1440, and is considered by Skeat to be of Arabic origin, though Katzer believes the Arabic al-karawya (cf. Spanish alcaravea) to be derived from the Latin carum.