[Sca-cooks] Coleworts

[david friedman]

Jadwiga asked concerning cabbages vs. coleworts.

What the Oxford English Dictionary has to say concerning colewort:

"1. Originally, a general name for any plant of the cabbage kind,
genus Brassica (of which the varieties were formerly less distinct
than now)."

which is followed by various quotes, the earliest from c. 1380, and
the most interesting to the purpose from 1578: "There be divers
sortes of Colewurts, not muche lyke one another."

"2. In later times, applied especially to those varieties which do
not heart, e.g. kale or greens, or to cabbage-plants before they
heart."

The earliest quote with this usage is 1683 (the one you quoted is
earlier, of course) and distinguishes among "Colworts, Cabbage, and
Colly-flowers".

The entry for cabbage has as its earliest quote 1440 (one of the
cookbooks) and says that "cabbage" originally meant the head, the
plant being called cabbage-cole or colewort, and the meaning later
got extended to mean the plant or all closely related plants.

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook