Cabbage: The Vegetable Named After a Head
Cabbage is a leafy vegetable that grows in a tight round head. The name comes from a French word for head, and the plant is the same species as broccoli and kale.
Cabbage is a hardy vegetable whose leaves wrap into a dense ball. Botanically it is astonishing company: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts are all one species, Brassica oleracea, bred into different shapes over centuries.
- A round leafy vegetable. *Shred the cabbage finely.*
- The plant itself. *Cabbages overwintered in the field.*
- Money (dated slang). *Rolling in cabbage.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cabbage | A head of cabbage. |
| Plural | cabbages | Rows of cabbages. |
| Compound | red cabbage | Braised red cabbage. |
| Compound | cabbage white | A cabbage white butterfly. |
| Related | sauerkraut | Fermented into sauerkraut. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Boil the cabbage for no more than five minutes.Uncountable when it is the food.
- The allotment was full of cabbages.Countable when they are whole plants.
- Cabbage white caterpillars stripped the leaves.The butterfly named for the crop it eats.
One species, six vegetables
- Cabbage — bred for a tight terminal bud
- Kale — bred for loose leaves
- Broccoli and cauliflower — bred for flower heads
- Brussels sprouts — bred for side buds along the stem
- Kohlrabi — bred for a swollen stem
From Old North French *caboche*, head, a variant of *caboce*. The name is descriptive rather than botanical, which is why several unrelated plants elsewhere in the world also ended up called cabbage.
Is cabbage countable?
Both. Count whole vegetables, but use the mass noun for the food on a plate: *there is cabbage in the salad*.
Why do sprouts taste bitter to some people?
A gene affecting taste receptors makes certain compounds in brassicas far more bitter for some people than others.