sdi: Oil painting of the Heliconian Muse whispering inspiration to Hesiod. (Default)
sdi ([personal profile] sdi) wrote2024-12-11 07:37 am
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Etymology is Weird

Fun fact: the English word celery is from French celeri, Latin selinum, Ancient Greek σέλινον (selinon). It is evidently named after the city-state Σελινοῦς (Selinous) in Sicily, which was founded upon a spot abundant with wild celery, and from there the plant became widely associated with the city: its coat-of-arms was a celery leaf, its coins were stamped with the image of a celery leaf, and Plutarch tells us that they once presented the temple of Apollo at Delphi with a solid-gold statue of a celery plant as thanks for victory in war.