If you look at a modern head of cabbage, you are seeing the result of centuries of selective breeding. Our modern cabbage and the plants we derived from it bear little resemblance to their loose-leaved ancestors. And, our common name for this ubiquitous source of plant foods could have been very different! Just as cabbage didn’t always have tight, crunchy heads, it didn’t always have the same name. Before cabbage, there was Colewort.
While the word “cole” is an orphan-word in modern English, surviving almost exclusively in the word coleslaw, it was once the primary name for the most important green in the Western world. Ironically, the word “wort” lives on in dozens of other plants, yet the combination of the two has been all but forgotten. There could not be a more humble name for a plant than Colewort, as we shall see. Yet, this single wild plant was the genetic engine that transformed into everything from kale to cauliflower.
Read More: For a deeper look at the Dutch influence that eventually turned “Cole” into a chilled salad see my full breakdown of Coleslaw Origin and History.
The Linguistic Roots: From Celts to Wycliffe
The humble history of Colewort is written in the evolution of its name. The term “Cole” stems from the Latin caulis (meaning stem) which derived by way of the Greeks from the Celtic word caul, meaning “stalk.”
The second half of the name, “wort,” is the Old English term for a plant, specifically a useful, medicinal, or food plant. The name wort survives in names of dozens of plants, from St. John’s Wort to Liverwort. Yet, this historic name for a plant that gave us everything from kale to cauliflower, simply translates to “stem plant.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest evidence of the word appears in the English Wycliffite Sermons around 1380.
A Tale of Two Words: Brassica vs. Colewort
It can be confusing to realize that the same plant family traveled through history under two completely different names, both originating from the same Celtic source. To understand the history of the cabbage, we have to look at how the Greeks and Romans “split” their vocabulary.
- The Scientific Path (Bresic): The Celts had a specific proper name for the cabbage plant: bresic. When the Romans adopted the vegetable, they Latinized this into Brassica. Today, this remains the formal, scientific genus name for the entire family of cruciferous vegetables, from broccoli to mustard.
- The Common Path (Caul): While Brassica was the “official” name, the Greeks and Romans also borrowed a more generic Celtic word, caul, which simply meant “stalk” or “stem.”
This is where the “humble” nature of the name comes into play. While other plants were named for their beauty or flowers, the common people named this plant for its most prominent feature: its thick, hardy stalk. This descriptive word for “the stem plant” traveled through Latin (caulis) and Old English (cole) to eventually become Colewort.
Ultimately, history gave us a “scientific” name for the botanists and a “common” name for the cooks. It was the simple, descriptive word for a stalk, the Cole, that stuck with the people who actually grew and ate it.
It’s important to remember that the Brassica genus extends far beyond the garden vegetable. It also includes rapeseed, the source of one of the most misunderstood ingredients in the modern pantry. We’ve debunked the common myths surrounding its production in The Truth About the Toxic Canola Oil Warning.
Cabbage vs. Colewort: An Elizabethan Distinction
In Elizabethan England, the distinction between a “cabbage” and a “colewort” was one of maturity rather than species. As noted in Jane O’Hara-May’s Elizabethan Dyetary of Health, “cabbage” referred specifically to the compact “heart” or head of the plant.
The rest of the plant, the loose, open leaves that didn’t form a head, was the Colewort. Because many medieval varieties never “headed” at all (resembling modern kale or collards), Colewort was the default state of the vegetable. It was the essential ingredient in “pottage,” the thick vegetable stew that sustained the peasantry for centuries.
From European Cattle Feed to Southern Icon
Perhaps the most dramatic shift in the story of the Colewort is its journey to the Americas. In Europe, coarser varieties of these non-heading greens were often viewed with culinary disdain and relegated to the status of cattle feed. They were hardy enough to survive the winter “hungry gap,” but were rarely seen on the tables of the elite.
When these seeds reached the American South, the name “Colewort” underwent a linguistic corruption, eventually becoming “collard” or “collard greens.” The transition from “cow food” to a cornerstone of Southern cuisine was spearheaded by the ingenuity of enslaved West Africans. By applying traditional slow-simmering techniques and utilizing the potlikker (the nutrient-dense broth left over from boiling), they transformed a hardy, overlooked plant into a vital source of nutrition and a foundational element of Soul Food.
The Botanical Shapeshifter
It is a testament to the versatility of Brassica oleracea that it could travel from the Mediterranean, where it entered Jewish cooking via the Greeks as Kruv around 275 BCE, to the gardens of Elizabethan England and finally to the smoky kitchens of the American South.
Whether you call it a Colewort, a Collard, or simply “Cole,” this plant remains the common ancestor of our modern vegetable garden—the missing link that reminds us how much of our culinary history is hidden in plain sight.
The “stem-focused” nature of the Colewort isn’t unique in this family. Modern favorites like broccolini and rapini follow a similar botanical path, though they aren’t always what they seem. You can explore the fascinating family tree of these greens in The Difference Between Rapini and Broccolini.
📚 Further Reading: The Language of Food
If you enjoyed tracing the medieval roots of the cabbage family, explore these other deep dives into how our food gets its names:
- The Language of Food: Why the way we talk about ingredients is about more than just definitions—it’s about preserving cultural history.
- Redundant Food Names: Is saying “Chai Tea” or “Naan Bread” actually a mistake? Discover why these “repetitive” names are a natural part of how English borrows from other cultures.
- The Origin of the Word Grocery: How a term for “bulk sellers” became our modern food store.
- How Was Horseradish Named?: Hint: It has nothing to do with horses or radishes.
- Why Are Potatoes Called Spuds?: Digging into the digging tool that gave the potato its nickname.
- Why Do We Call Maize “Corn”?: The story of how a generic term for “grain” became a specific American staple.