Forms: 5 caboche, cabache, 5–6 cabage, 6 cabbysshe, cabish, 6–7 cabidge, 7 cabige, cabadge, cabbadge, cabbach, cabbish, 7– cabbage. [ME. caboche, a. F. caboche head (in the Channel Islands ‘cabbage’) = It. capocchia, a derivative of It. capo:—L. caput head. But the actual Fr. name is choux cabus, lit. ‘great-headed cole, cabbage cole’: F. cabus, fem. cabusse = It. capuccio:—L. type *capūceum, *capūteum, f. caput head.
Cf. also Du. kabuis(-kool) cabbage(-cole), f. F. cabus: OHG. chabuȝ, chapuȝ, MHG. kappaȝ, kappûs, kabeȝ, mod.G. kappes, kappus ‘cabbage,’ is taken by Grimm and Kluge as a direct adoption of L. caput itself, though no use of this in the required sense is known. It is possible that the Eng. cabbage-cole was really an adaptation of the Du. kabuis-kool influenced by F. caboche.]
1. A well-known culinary vegetable: a plane-leaved cultivated variety of Brassica oleracea, the unexpanded leaves of which form a compact globular heart or head. Originally the ‘cabbage’ was the head thus formed (cf. cabbage-head in 5), the plant being apparently called cabbage-cole or colewort; now the name ‘cabbage’ is sometimes extended to the whole species or genus, whether hearting or not, as in Savoy Cabbage, Wild Cabbage, Isle of Man Cabbage (Brassica Monensis).
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 426. Take cabaches and cut hom on foure … and let hit boyle.
1495. Caxton, Vitas Patr., 118. He laboured the gardins, sewe the seedes for cabochis, and colewortes.
1570. Levins, Manip., 11. A cabage, herbe.
1580. Baret, Alv., Cabage, or colewoort, brassica. Cabage, or cole cabege, brassica capitata.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 373. As little agreement … as is betwixt the Vine and the Cabish.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 124. Good worts? good Cabidge.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 135. The great, hard, and compacted heads of Cole, commonly called Cabbage.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, VI. 220. Those that sow … Carrats, Cabidge, and such like.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., Ded. Cato seemed to dote upon Cabbadge.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, III. III. 307. They … knew how to save both their Goat and their Cabbadge.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 64/2. The Colewort is the same to the Cabbach.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria, § 11. ’Tis scarce a hundred years since we first had cabbages out of Holland.
1719. London & Wise, Compl. Gard., 199. Pancaliers, or Millan-Cabbages, which produce small headed Cabbages, for Winter.
1852. Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., vii. (1885), 79. Unless it be a Savoy cabbage.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 243. Cabbages or any other vegetables which are fit for boiling.
2. Transferred with epithets to various other plants: Arkansas Cabbage, Streplanthus obtusifolius; Chinese Cabbage, Brassica chinensis; Dog’s C., Thelygonum Cynocrambe, a succulent herb of the Mediterranean; Kerguelen’s Land C., Pringlea antiscorbutica; Meadow or Skunk C., Symplocarpus fœtidus, a North American plant with a garlic odor; St. Patrick’s C. = LONDON PRIDE; Sea Cabbage = SEA KALE, Crambe maritima; Sea-otter’s C., a remarkable sea-weed, Nereocystis, found in the North Pacific. (Treas. Bot., and Miller, Eng. Names of Plants.)
3. The tender unexpanded center or terminal bud of palm trees, which is in most species edible, and is often eaten, though its removal kills the tree. See CABBAGE-TREE.
1638. T. Verney, in Verney Papers (1853), 195. Cabiges, that grows on trees, some an hundred foot high.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 166. The Cabbage itself when it is taken out of the Leaves … is as white as Milk, and as sweet as a Nut if eaten raw.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica (1789), 341–2. The Cocco-Nut Tree…. The tender shoots at the top afford a pleasant green, or cabbage.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 175. The cabbage … is white … two feet long … thick as a man’s arm.
1860. Tennent, Ceylon, I. 109, note. The cabbage, or cluster of unexpanded leaves, for pickles and preserves.
† 4. The burr whence spring the horns of a deer; also = CABAGING.
c. 1550. Lacy, Bucke’s Test. My cabage I wyll the hounde for strife.
1611. Cotgr., Meule … the cabbadge of a Deeres head.
5. Comb. a. Simple: of cabbage or cabbages, as cabbage-blade, -eater, -flower, -garden, -garth, -ground, -grower, -leaf, -stalk, -stock, -stump; like a cabbage in shape, as † cabbage-ruff, † -shoe-string. b. Special, as cabbage bark, the narcotic and anthelmintic bark of the cabbage-bark tree or CABBAGE-TREE, Andira inermis (N.O. Leguminosæ); cabbage beetle = cabbage flea; cabbage butterfly, the Large White butterfly of English gardens and fields, Pieris Brassicæ, sometimes also the Small White (P. Rapæ); cabbage-cole = CABBAGE 1; cabbage-daisy, a local name of the Globe-flower (Trollius); cabbage-flea, a minute leaping beetle, Haltica consobrina, the larvæ of which destroy cabbage plants; cabbage-fly, a two-winged fly (Anthomyia Brassicæ), the grubs of which destroy the roots of cabbage; cabbage-head, the head formed by the unexpanded leaves of a cabbage; also fig. a brainless fellow, a thickhead; cabbage-lettuce, a variety of lettuce, with leaves forming a cabbage-like head; cabbage-moth, one of the Noctuina (Mamestra Brassicæ), the caterpillar of which infests the cabbage; cabbage-net, a small net to boil cabbage in; cabbage-palm, Areca oleracea, a native of the West Indies, etc.: see CABBAGE-TREE; cabbage-plant, a young plant or seedling of the cabbage; cabbage-rose, a double red rose, with large round compact flower (Rosa centifolia); cabbage-wood, (a.) the wood of the cabbage-tree, (b.) Eriodendron anfractuosum, a tree related to Bombax; cabbage-worm, any larva that devours cabbage, esp. that of the Large White butterfly, called in Scotland kailworm; also the CABBAGE-TREE worm.
1777. Wright, in Phil. Trans., LXVII. 507. The *Cabbage-bark tree, or Worm-bark tree, grows in … Jamaica. Ibid., 508. Fresh cabbage-bark tastes mucilaginous.
1866. Treas. Bot., 63. The bark is known as Bastard Cabbage Bark or Worm Bark; its use is now obsolete.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), II. 383. The larva of the *cabbage-butterfly (Pontia Brassicæ).
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 6. 328. The caterpillar of the Common White Cabbage Butterfly … is often injurious to the Swedish … turnip.
1865. Intell. Observ., No. 47. 396. The small white cabbage-butterfly (Pieris Rapæ).
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 151. *Cabbage cole boyled, is very good with beefe.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 135. Coleworts or Cole are much vsed to be eaten, especially the Cabbage-Cole.
1861. Mrs. Lankester, Wild Flowers, 20. In Scotland it [Globe Flower] is called Lucken Gowan, or *Cabbage Daisy.
1882. Garden, 4 March, 147/1. The root-eating fly, or *Cabbage fly.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 225. The tenant-right of a *cabbage-garden … the very shadow of a constructive property.
1887. J. K. Laughton, in Dict. Nat. Biog. IX. 435/2. During Smith O’Brien’s ‘cabbage-garden’ rebellion.
1863. N. & Q., Ser. III. III. 344. The old ‘Shandy’ garden … is staked out into three *cabbage-garths.
1884. Athenæum, 6 Dec., 725/2. The eyes of those poor *cabbage-growers down there.
1682. Mrs. Behn, False Count (1724), III. 146. Thou foul filthy *cabbage-head.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 194/1. The green Caterpiller worm … feeds on *Cabbish-leaves.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. III. xlii. 196. They also use … a cabbage-leaf under their hats.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 26 a. Called … *Cabbage lettes, because it goeth all into one heade, as cabbage cole dothe.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. ii. 175. The largest and hardest Cabbage-Lettuce you can get.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 6. 329. Caterpillars of … the *Cabbage Moth.
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., II. 136. The Unshorn Dozens, the *Cabbage-Net Bays, and other sorry Woollen Manufactures of the French Nation.
1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistr., xxxiii. 291. Apples with Cabbage-net y’ cover’d o’er.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xiv. Officers who boil their ’tators in a cabbage-net hanging in the ship’s coppers.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 199. A few plants, gathered from the *cabbage-palm, which had been mistaken for the cocoa-tree.
1853. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., III. xxx. 211. The cylinders of palmetto, improperly called ‘the cabbage palm,’ three feet long, and five to six inches thick.
1646. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 193. Plant forth your *Cabbage-Plants.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 355. Transplant some Cabbage-plants of the Sugar-loaf kind.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Pindariana, Wks. 1812, IV. 183. With *Cabbage-roses loaded, glaring, vast.
1838. Visitor, The cabbage rose has been known as the hundred-leaved rose since the time of Pliny.
1613. Rowlands, Four Knaves, Paire of Spy. His *cabage ruffe, of the outrageouse size, Starched in colour to beholders eyes. Ibid. (1843), 48. Let us have standing collers, in the fashion … great *cabbage-shooestrings, (pray you bigge enough).
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, V. iii. The interruption of a *cabbage-stalk was represented as a question from some intelligent individual in the crowd.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 339/2. I picked out of the gutter, and eat like a dog—orange-peel and old *cabbage-stumps.
1843. W. Waterston, Cycl. Commerce, *Cabbage-wood…. The wood is sometimes used in ornamental furniture.
1885. A. B. Ellis, W. African Isl., i. 9. Tree-ferns and cabbage-wood grow luxuriantly on the main ridge of mountains [in St. Helena].
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 204/1. The *Cabbach or Lettice Worm … turns into a Butter-fly all white.
