Forms: α. 6 colieflorie, 6–7 cole-flory, -florie, 7 coly-flory, coley-florey, colliflory. β. 7 coleflower, collyflowre, coly-, cauly-, caully-, cawly-flower, 7–8 collyflower, colliflower, 8– cauliflower. [The 16th c. cole-florye, colie-florie, was app. corrupted from the mod.L. cauli-flōra or F. chou-flori, chou-fleuri, assimilated to Eng. COLE. (The L. and F. both mean ‘flowered cole or cabbage’: cf. Ger. blumenkohl, Du. bloemkool ‘flower-cole.’ Cf. also It. cavolfiore, pl. cavoli (caoli) fiori, Sp. coliflor. The later colly-flower and cauliflower are assimilated to flower, and to the L. cauliflora. So mod.F. has made chou-fleuri into chou-fleur ‘cole-flower.’]
1. One of the cultivated varieties of the cabbage (Brassica oleracea botrytis cauliflora), the young inflorescence of which forms a close fleshy white edible head.
α. 1597. Gerard, Herbal, xxxvi. 246. Cole Florie, or after some Colieflorie. Ibid., 316. Cole-flory is called in Latin Cauliflora.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 26. There grow out of the same coleworte other fine colliflories (if I may so say).
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. xi. 37. The Coley-florey, Rape-cole, Muske-melon.
1620. Venner, Via Recta (1650), 186. Cole-florie exceedeth all the other kinds of Coleworts.
1621–6. Bacon, Sylva, § 484. Lettuce, or Coleflory, or Artichoake.
1659. R. Lovell, Herbal, 104. Cole-florie.
β. 1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., VIII. (1626), 167.
| Her husband gathers cole-flowrs, with their leaues; | |
| Which from his gratefull garden he receiues. |
1634. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, Introd. 24. For 20 collyflowres 00 13 00.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 70. What smells oth’ lampe dawbes thy pale colyflowers.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 190. Early Cauly-flower. Ibid., 212. Sow … Cawly-flowers for Winter Plants.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 64/2. The Cole-flower or Colliflower.
1734. Mrs. Pendarves, in Mrs. Delany’s Corr. (1861), I. 478. For dinner … boiled leg of lamb and loin fried, collyflowers and carrots.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1793), I. 160 (L.). They scarce know a crab from a cauliflower.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1776), 353. Take the closest and whitest collyflowers you can get.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 265. The Cauliflower … brought into England from the island of Cyprus.
2. attrib. and Comb., as cauliflower excrescence, growth (Pathol.), terms applied to natural or morbid growths that are developed in the form of a stem with branches and branchlets all closely applied to each other or crowded, e.g., acinous glands, villous tumors, etc.; cauliflower wig, a wig supposed to resemble a cauliflower.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 266. Cauliflower seed obtained from England is the most esteemed in Holland.
1753. London Mag., Aug., 380, note (Fairholt), [Names of wigs] The pigeons wing, the comet, the collyflower, [etc.].
1833. A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Admin. (1837), II. 382. He [a Bishop] had cauliflower wig, apron, shovel hat.
