What does colewort mean?
Colewort is an old English term for a non-heading plant of the cabbage family, especially what we would now call kale or collards, as well as for its edible leaves. The word combines 'cole', an ancient name for cabbage-type plants, with 'wort', an Old English word meaning simply a plant or herb. For centuries colewort was one of the most important vegetables in European gardens, valued because it was hardy, easy to grow, and available through winter when little else could be harvested. It appears frequently in medieval records, monastic garden plans, and early cookery, where it was typically boiled or stewed. Today the word has largely fallen out of everyday use, surviving in historical writing, dialect speech, and the vocabulary of heirloom gardening, though its relatives remain on every table: kale, collards, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi are all descendants of the same adaptable species that colewort once named.
nounA non-heading plant of the cabbage family (Brassica oleracea), such as kale, whose edible leaves are used as a vegetable; also the leaves themselves when eaten.
- A non-heading cultivated plant of the cabbage family, especially kale or collards, grown for its edible leaves.
- The leaves of such a plant used as food.
"The medieval garden plot was given over almost entirely to beans, onions, and colewort."
"In early spring the monks tended their beds of colewort beside the infirmary."
"She simmered the colewort slowly with bacon until the greens turned silky and dark."
The plural is common in historical and agricultural texts referring to multiple plants; the uncountable singular is used for the vegetable as food.
"By Michaelmas the beds of coleworts stood thick and green despite the frost."
Before there were cabbages that formed heads, there was only colewort — the wild ancestor whose leaves fed Europe for centuries before gardeners bred it into everything from kale to cauliflower.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of colewort
Colewort derives from Old English 'cawl' or 'cawel', meaning cabbage, which was borrowed from Latin 'caulis' (stem or stalk), combined with 'wort', from Old English 'wyrt', meaning plant or herb. The Latin root 'caulis' also gave rise to 'cauliflower', 'kale' (via Old Norse 'kál'), and 'kohlrabi'. The compound reflects the Germanic habit of naming useful plants with the generic suffix '-wort', as in liverwort and mugwort.
How colewort is actually used
Colewort is now largely archaic or historical, surviving mainly in older gardening texts, regional British dialect, and discussions of medieval agriculture. In modern usage it has been replaced by words like kale, collard greens, or simply greens. The plural coleworts is common when referring to the plants collectively.
Easily confused with colewort
Collard refers specifically to the loose-leafed cabbage variety grown in the American South, while colewort is the broader older English term for any non-heading cabbage plant such as kale.
Coleslaw is a cold salad of shredded raw cabbage in dressing, whereas colewort is the living plant or its cooked leaves.