Clove #
Illustration of Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. \& L.M.Perry from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887)
Clove (Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry) is a culinary and medicinal spice from the Myrtaceae family,1 originating in the region(s) of Moluccas (Indonesia).2 It is used for its flower buds, primarily for meats, sauces; anesthetic. Its aroma is described as sweet, pungent, astringent, with a heat index of 5.3
| English | Arabic | Chinese | Hungarian |
|---|---|---|---|
| clove | قرنفل | 丁香 | szegfűszeg |
Overview #
| id | clove |
|---|---|
| species name | Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry |
| family | Myrtaceae |
| part used | flower buds |
| macroarea | Asia |
| region of origin | Moluccas (Indonesia) |
| cultivation | Indonesia; Malaysia; Tanzania |
| color | rich, reddish brown |
| botanical database | POWO |
Etymologies #
English clove, ?ca. 1225 < Anglo-Norman clow, c.1200 < Old French clou, XII < Latin clāvus ’nail'
Arabic قرنفل qaranful ‘clove’, (also refers to carnation flower) < Dravidian ?, perhaps from a language of South India, where cloves were initially traded from
Mandarin Chinese 丁香 dīngxiāng ‘clove’ [nail-spice ], using pictogram after the shape of the spice (earlier name is 雞舌香 jīshéxiāng [chicken-tongue-spice ] ), 1321
Names #
English #
| term | source |
|---|---|
| clove | OED |
Arabic #
| script | term | literal | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| قرنفل | qaranful | Wehr, 1976 | |
| كيش قرنفل | kabsh qaranful | ram of cloves? | Baalbaki, 1995 |
Chinese #
| script | term | literal | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 丁香 | dīngxiāng | nail-spice | Kleeman, 2010 |
| 雞舌香 | jīshéxiāng | chicken-tongue-spice | Defrancis, 2003 |
POWO. (2022). Plants of the World Online (Botanical Database). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ ↩︎
van Wyk, B.-E. (2014). Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World. University of Chicago Press, joint publication with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226091839.001.0001 ↩︎
Medicinal Spices Exhibit. (2002). UCLA Biomedical Library: History & Special Collections. https://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm?spicefilename=taste.txt&itemsuppress=yes&displayswitch=0 ↩︎