Forms: 4–6 coriandre, (5 coriande, 6 corandre, corriandir), 5– coriander. [a. F. coriandre, ad. L. coriandrum, ad. Gr. κορίαννον (app. a foreign word). An early popular L. var. coliandrum gave OE. cellendre, OHG. chullantar, OF. coliandre, whence earlier Eng. COLIANDER, q.v.]
1. An annual plant, Coriandrum sativum, N. O. Umbelliferæ, with compound leaves and globose fruit; a native of Southern Europe, the Levant, etc., naturalized in some parts of England. The fruit is carminative and aromatic, and used for flavoring purposes.
[c. 1265. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 556/9. Coliandrum, coriandre.]
1388. Wyclif, Ex. xvi. 31. Whijt as the seed of coriandre.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xxxix. (1495), 626. The herbe Coriandre hathe gode smelle in itself whyle it is hole and sounde.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health, xxvi. (1612), 43. Coriander, commonly Coliander, the seede is … moderately hot and dry.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvii. 235. Coriander has no proper universal involucre.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 179. Coriander and caraway are grown extensively in Essex.
† 2. Short for coriander-seed. Obs.
Small globular comfits containing a single ‘seed’ are also called corianders [so It. coriandoli].
1551. Turner, Herbal, M j a. Coriandre layd to wyth breade or barly mele is good for saynt Antonyes fyre.
† 3. slang. Coin, money; short for coriander-seed. Cf. COLIANDER c. Obs.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, IV. ix. 38 (N.). The Spankers, Spur-Royals, Rose-Nobles, and other Coriander Seed with which she was quilted all over.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xix. 156. You … must shell out your corianders.
4. attrib., as coriander cake, comfit, fruit, oil; coriander-seed, the popular name of the globose fruit, which contains two carpels; also slang, coin, money (see 3); † coriander wound-weed (see quot.).
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, I. 50. No temptation of *coriander cakes, or anchovy pasties.
1656. [? J. Sergeant], trans. T. White’s Peripat. Inst., 144. A kind of snowy-hail we sometimes see like *Coriander Confits.
1863–82. Watts, Dict. Chem., II. 84. *Coriander oil is a mixture of several oils.
1530. Palsgr., 208/2. *Coriandre sede, coriandre.
1535. Coverdale, Ex. xvi. 31. It was like Coriander sede, and whyte.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 6. Little Tubercles, about the size of Coriander-Seed.
1737. [see 3].
1886. Official Guide Kew Gardens. Fruits of the Coriander … known in Commerce as Coriander seeds.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 136 a. The thyrde kynde [of Sideritis] … maye be called in English *Coriandre wounde wede.
