Shorter Oxford specifies 'beets' as an earlier form - one of those
murkin leftovers like 'gotten'?
It does not list beetroot at all except as an occasional combination.
I thought the French 'betterave' might be a clue but that just means a
turnip shaped beet.
Genus name is Beta.
I think in this case a root is just a root. (Aus. joke).
Carrots were originally white or purplish and rather bitter. It was
the Dutch who turned them orange. For political reasons. (Sounds daft
but quite true).
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 30/04/2010, at 6:18 PM, Piers Hemy wrote:
> Took the tuber word out of my mouth, Andrew. And you are right to
> prefer
> "beetroot" to "beet", though I think the root reason is not the right
> reason, so to speak. I have not found authoritative support for
> this, but I
> would bet a beet that "root" in "beetroot" is a corrupted reference
> to the
> colour red, used to distinguish it from the white variety of beet,
> which we
> use for sugar production. I assume in Chuck's backyard there is no
> end of
> cane for that purpose, with no need to produce white beet, and thus no
> genral familiarity with any beet other than the red one, and thus no
> need
> for the "red" qualifier.
>
> I was tempted to propose that "-rot" in carrot was a corruption of
> "root",
> but it seems that word is direct from Greek.
>
> In Danish and Norwegian, beetroot is known as rødbeder/rødbete -
> redbeet,
> while carrot is known as gulerod/gulrot - yellow roots.
>
> Piers
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Fildes [mailto:afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 30 April 2010 08:02
> To: Olympus Camera Discussion
> Subject: Re: [OM] OT. Liverpool
>
> That's because it's a tuber - a different thing altogether.
> Hmmm - carrotroot - OK, you win.
> However, the green tops are quite edible.
> Andrew Fildes
> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> On 30/04/2010, at 10:22 AM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
>> But we
>> don't call it potatoroot. :-)
>
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