asparagus
/əˈsparəɡəs
/- Asparagus officinalis, family Liliaceae.
- Asparagus beetles tend to shy away from asparagus when tomatoes, parsley or basil are planted nearby.
- Despite the admirable longevity of an established asparagus bed, the plants get off to a slow start.
- Combine the corn with steamed green vegetables like asparagus and offer baked potatoes to ensure the children don't go hungry.
- The tender, juicy asparagus provides a counterpoint to the fried food.
Origin
Mid 16th century: via Latin from Greek asparagos.
The vegetable we know as asparagus was originally called sparagus (from medieval Latin), which was soon turned into the more English-sounding sparrow-grass. This process is called folk etymology, where people modify the form of an unusual word to make it seem to be derived from familiar ones. Sparrow-grass remained the polite name for the vegetable during the 18th century, with only botanists sticking to the spelling asparagus. As the compiler of a pronunciation dictionary wrote in 1791: ‘Sparrow-grass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry.’ It wasn't until the 19th century that asparagus returned into literary and polite use, leaving sparrow-grass to survive as an English dialect form.