chicory

noun

Etymology: From Late Middle English cicoree, cicory, cicorea, sicory, sycory (“common chicory (Cichorium intybus); heliotrope”), from Old French cicoree (modern French chicorée (“common chicory; endive; coffee substitute made from common chicory”)), or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin cicorea, cichorea, *cichōria, from Latin cichorium, cichoreum (“common chicory; endive”), from Ancient Greek κίχορα (kíkhora), κιχόρεια (kikhóreia), neuter plural of κιχώριον (kikhṓrion, “chicory”). The English word is cognate with Italian cicórea, and is a doublet of succory.

1. Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.

   “Endive—is another species of chicory, and a native of the East Indies. It was introduced into this country in 1548, is a hardy annual, requires a rich soil to secure its rapid maturity, and is blanched by tying up the leaves when it has attained its full growth. [...] It is used as a salad, ragout, or as a constituent of soups, &c.; and is considered very digestible and well adapted as a green vegetable for those who have delicate digestive organs.”

   “The eating is beautiful; that must be allowed. Two soups, three fishes, five roast chickens, and a piece of veal, stewed with cherries; a dish of chops with chickory, and a meat-pie garnished with cockscombs— [...]”

2. Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.

   “sugarloaf chicory”

   “I sent you the chiccory seed for trial, as it is so highly spoken of by A. Young and other British writers, [...] In foreign countries an imitation of coffee is made, by grinding the dried and burnt roots, and mixing a little real coffee wih the ground roots.”

3. Either of two plants of the Asteraceae family.

   “The leaves of the cultivated chicory, endive, when blanched, form an ingredient in early spring salads.”

   “In the beginning of May, 1870, we sowed some seed of this Dandelion in a well prepared bed, in which the roots could easily develope themselves without meeting with any obstacle. The young plants soon appeared above ground, and in autumn we were able to cut from them great quantities of long and large leaves, which made an excellent salad. Others were cooked the same as Chicory (Endive), and were found to be very good.”

4. A coffee substitute made from the roasted roots of the common chicory, sometimes used as a cheap adulterant in real coffee.

   “The Coffee planters have invariably waged war against the use of Chicory, under the conscientious conviction that every ounce of Chicory consumed in England displaced an ounce of their Coffee in the market. [...] That the prudent, sensible, moderate use of Chicory has been abused, there can be no question; but the same remark applies to everything which has every been found useful in any branch of manufacture whatever.”

   “Whatever be the discoverable properties and applications of the dandelion tribe of vegetables, our object in the meanwhile is to see what part chicory is made to perform in the preparation and sale of coffee. [...] Of the flavour of the pure infusion of chicory we have already spoken: it was that of a peculiar bitterish sweet, not very palatable, yet not positively distasteful. [...] The flavour of the mixed coffee and chicory infusion was at once recognised to be that which the beverage called coffee ordinarily has when well made, and which most coffee-drinkers, we should imagine, would prefer.”