Other forms: cauliflowers
A cauliflower is a pale head of tight white florets. A head of cauliflower, cauliflower cheese, roast the cauliflower.
The white head is an arrested flower cluster, and it stays white because the leaves are tied over it to keep the light out. Cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale and sprouts are all the same species, bred in different directions.
1nouncauliflowerA pale head of tight white florets.
“For dinner, we had cauliflower baked in a creamy cheese sauce.”
cauliflower is a vegetable.
From an older cole-florye, cabbage flower, from Latin caulis, a cabbage stalk, plus flower.
Latin
caulis
English, today
cauliflower
From 16th century cole-florye, equivalent to cole (from Latin caulis) + flower, reformed to more closely match the Latin etymon.by surface analysis, caul(is) + -i- + flower. Cognate with French chou-fleur, Italian cavolfiore. calqued?
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA