Also erron. khol-. [G. kohlrabi (also formerly kol-, kal(i)-, kaulirabi, and dial. koll(e)râwî) 16th c. ad. It. cavoli (or cauli) rape, pl. of cavolo rapa (F. chou-rave) ‘cole-rape’: the first element being assimilated to G. kohl (earlier ad. L. caulis, COLE sb.1).] A cabbage with a turnip-shaped stem, varieties of which are cultivated as food for cattle in England, and as a vegetable in India and Germany; the turnip-cabbage.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 191. The khol rabi, or above-ground turnip cabbage.
1808. J. C. Curwen, Hints Econ. Feeding, 50. The ground was cropped with … one [acre] of kohlrabi.
1851. Stephens, Bk. of Farm (ed. 2), II. 88/2. Two varieties of Kohi rabi are cultivated—the green and the purple.
1887. Times, 7 Sept., 3/2. A large breadth of kohl-rabi, which was a fair plant.
1899. Rider Haggard, in Longm. Mag., 512. The kohlrabi are coming up on the new-drained field.
