turmeric
- 1A spice made by grinding the rhizome of the turmeric plant into powder, used to flavor food and give it a bright yellow color.
Authentic curries rely on turmeric for both their warm flavor and golden hue.
A pinch of turmeric turns plain rice a vivid yellow.
Note
In the kitchen the word behaves as a mass noun: a pinch of turmeric, a teaspoon of ground turmeric. The countable use is reserved for kinds or preparations of it. Cooks value it as much for color as for flavor, since a small amount tints a whole dish gold. Recipes and ingredient lists may also call it haldi, a synonym that sits comfortably alongside the English name.
- 2An Indian plant (Curcuma longa) of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, with aromatic underground rhizomes.
Botanists classify turmeric within the ginger family Zingiberaceae.
Turmeric thrives in hot, humid climates with well-drained soil.
Note
The plant the spice and the dye both come from, and the sense where the word's tangled history belongs. Middle English had turmeryte and tarmaret, of uncertain origin. The word may be a corruption of Arabic kurkum, a name for Curcuma, or of Old French terre mérite, "deserving earth." The French phrase may itself be a folk reshaping of the Arabic. Botanists write Curcuma longa when they mean the living plant rather than the kitchen spice.
- 3A dye ranging from yellow to reddish brown that is obtained from the turmeric plant.
Traditional dyers colored monks' robes with turmeric.
Turmeric gives wool a rich golden tone, though the color fades in sunlight.
Note
On a food label this sense often hides behind a code: E100, which names turmeric used for its color rather than its taste. What separates it from the kitchen spice is purpose, not substance. Both come from the same plant, but here it is valued for what it does to cloth or food, not for how it seasons a dish.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English turmeryte or tarmaret, of uncertain origin. It may be a corruption of Arabic كُرْكُم (kurkum, 'Curcuma'), or it may come from Old French terre mérite ('deserving earth'), perhaps as a folk etymology of the Arabic word.