Turmeric is a bright yellow root powder used in curry. A teaspoon of turmeric, turmeric stains, fresh turmeric.
It stains everything permanently, cloth and plastic alike, which is the first thing anybody learns about it. The active compound is curcumin, and it is the colour in most mustard sold in jars.
1nounturmericA bright yellow root powder used in curry.
“She added a spoonful of turmeric, and the rice turned bright yellow.”
turmeric is a spice.
Middle English turmeryte is of uncertain origin, perhaps from an Old French phrase meaning deserving earth.
Old French
terre
Arabic
كُرْكُم — Curcuma
Middle English
turmeryte
English, today
turmeric
Built from
From Middle English turmeryte, tarmaret, of uncertain origin. Possibly corrupted from Arabic كُرْكُم (“Curcuma”) or from Old French terre mérite (“deserving earth”), potentially as a folk etymology of the Arabic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA