chicory
/ˈt͡ʃɪkəɹi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.39 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.
Canadian usage; American usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
A coffee substitute made from the roasted roots of the common chicory, sometimes used as a cheap adulterant in real coffee.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Endive—is another species of chicory, and a native of the East Indies. It was introduced into this country in 1548, is a hardy annual, requires a rich soil to secure its rapid maturity, and is blanched by tying up the leaves when it has attained its full growth. [...] It is used as a salad, ragout, or as a constituent of soups, &c.; and is considered very digestible and well adapted as a green vegetable for those who have delicate digestive organs."
- "The eating is beautiful; that must be allowed. Two soups, three fishes, five roast chickens, and a piece of veal, stewed with cherries; a dish of chops with chickory, and a meat-pie garnished with cockscombs— [...]"
- "In yet others the whole mass of the florets, central as well as external, has assumed this ray-like or strap-like form; and to this group belong the dandelions, hawk-weeds, salsifies, lettuces, sow-thistles, chiccories, nippleworts, and cat's-ears."
- "sugarloaf chicory"
- "I sent you the chiccory seed for trial, as it is so highly spoken of by A. Young and other British writers, [...] In foreign countries an imitation of coffee is made, by grinding the dried and burnt roots, and mixing a little real coffee wih the ground roots."
- "In its fresh vegetable state, chicory, or succory—the Cichorium Intybus of botanists, is said to be a good tonic, and to have the effect of an aperient."
Etymology
From Late Middle English cicoree, cicory, cicorea, sicory, sycory (“common chicory (Cichorium intybus); heliotrope”), from Old French cicoree (modern French chicorée (“common chicory; endive; coffee substitute made from common chicory”)), or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin cicorea, cichorea, *cichōria, from Latin cichorium, cichoreum (“common chicory; endive”), from Ancient Greek κίχορα (kíkhora), κιχόρεια (kikhóreia), neuter plural of κιχώριον (kikhṓrion, “chicory”). The English word is cognate with Italian cicórea, and is a doublet of succory.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: cicoree, cicorea, cichorium, κίχορα
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈt͡ʃɪkəɹi/
- British English: /ˈtʃɪkəɹi/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
California chicory
chicoric acid
chicory button
chicory coffee
desert chicory
Italian chicory
leaf chicory
root chicory