turnip
pronunciation
How to pronounce turnip in British English:
UK [ˈtɜ:nɪp]
How to pronounce turnip in American English:
US [ˈtɜrnɪp]
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- Noun:
- widely cultivated plant having a large fleshy edible white or yellow root
- root of any of several members of the mustard family
Word Origin
- turnip
- turnip: [16] Etymologically, a turnip may be a ‘turned neep’ – that is, a neep, or turnip, that has been ‘turned’ on a lathe, so as to be round (the turnip is a roughly spherical vegetable). Its second syllable, -nip, goes back ultimately to Latin nāpus ‘turnip’, which was adopted by Old English as nǣp. It survives in Scottish English as neep, which is used for ‘swedes’ as well as ‘turnips’. The linking of the first syllable with turn is purely conjectural, and has never been definitely established.=> neep
- turnip (n.)
- c. 1500, turnepe, probably from turn (from its shape, as though turned on a lathe) + Middle English nepe "turnip," from Old English næp, from Latin napus "turnip." The modern form of the word emerged late 18c.