cumin
- 1The aromatic, elongated seed used as a spice, common in Indian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican cooking.
He toasted the cumin in a dry pan before grinding it.
A pinch of cumin gives the lentil stew its earthy aroma.
Note
Folklore once credited the spice with holding on to people as well as flavor. Rosetta E. Clarkson's Green Enchantments (1940) records that cumin went into love potions because it was thought to produce "retention" in whoever ate it. In the kitchen the word is usually uncountable, as in a pinch of cumin or ground cumin. The name's long road back to Akkadian belongs to the plant itself.
- 2A flowering plant of the parsley family, Cuminum cyminum, grown for its aromatic seeds.
Cumin thrives in hot climates with well-drained soil.
The farmer harvested the cumin once its slender seeds had ripened.
Note
Few spice names have traveled so far. Middle English comyn came from Old English cymen and Old French cummin, both from Latin cuminum and Greek kúminon. The Greek word was itself a Semitic borrowing that reaches back to Akkadian kamūnu. The name may also be related to caraway. Botanists keep the ancient word twice over in Cuminum cyminum, a plant whose range runs from the eastern Mediterranean to India.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with cumin, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
From Middle English comyn, going back through Old English cymen and Old French cummin, both from Latin cuminum, from Ancient Greek kúminon. The Greek word was a Semitic borrowing that traces ultimately to Akkadian kamūnu ("cumin"), and it is possibly related to caraway.