Broccoli is the green vegetable that looks like a tiny tree. Steamed broccoli, a head of broccoli, broccoli florets.
It is the same species as cabbage, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts — all bred from one wild mustard plant into wildly different shapes. Overcooking releases the sulphur smell that puts children off. The Italian name means little sprouts.
1nounbroccoliA green vegetable with a dense flowering head.
“The kids refused to eat their broccoli, so I hid it in the pasta sauce.”
broccoli is a vegetable.
Italian broccoli is the plural of broccolo, a cabbage sprout, from brocco, a shoot.
Proto-Celtic
*brokkos — badger
Latin
broccus — pointed, sharp, projecting; buck-toothed
Italian
broccoli
English, today
broccoli
Built from
1699, Italian broccoli, plural of broccolo (“cabbage sprout, head”), diminutive of brocco (“shoot, sprout”) (which is also the origin of brocade), from Latin broccus (“pointed, sharp, projecting; buck-toothed”), possibly of cel-gau - origin, related to Proto-Celtic brokkos (“badger”) or Proto-Celtic brozdos (“tip, point”) (compare Scottish Gaelic brog (“pointed instrument, awl”), Welsh procio (“thrust, poke”), Old English brord (“point, spike”)). More at brochure, brad.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA