כְּרֵשָׁה (kresha) — leek

Etymology

The leek has been eaten and named in the Semitic world for at least five thousand years. The reconstructed Proto-Semitic form is something like *karathu, which diverged as the Semitic peoples separated: Akkadian received karrašu, Arabic karrāth, Aramaic kārātē, and Hebrew כְּרֵשָׁה. The Hebrew word is first attested in the Mishnah (around 200 CE, e.g., Kilayim 1:3) and appears frequently in rabbinic literature, testifying to the leek's popularity as a food. The rabbis also used the Aramaic form כָּרָתֵי and a borrowed Greek word, קַפְלוֹט (from Greek kephal-oton, "having a head"), for certain varieties.

Despite its abundance in rabbinic literature, the leek does not appear in the Bible under this name. The Rabbis believed it was present but under a different label: the word חָצִיר (usually "grass" or "hay") appears in Numbers 11:5 alongside onions and garlic in a list of Egyptian vegetables that the Israelites missed during their desert wanderings. The rabbis identified this Biblical חָצִיר as leek (Targum Onkelos: כרתי; Targum Yonatan: קפלוטיא). Medieval commentators followed suit in their own languages: Rashi, living in southern France, glosses חָצִיר as "porilsh" (Old French for leek), while Maimonides, in Muslim Spain, identifies it with the Arabic karrāth.

In Europe, Indo-European languages developed parallel leek words. Greek had prason (from a reconstructed *perso-), Latin had porrum, which fragmented as the Roman Empire fell: into Old French "porilsh" (the word Rashi knew), modern French poireau, Italian porro, Spanish porro, Romanian por. Germanic languages developed from a root *lawkaz, giving English "leek," Dutch look, and German Lauch. Slavic languages borrowed from both families: Polish pur, Russian luk. Yiddish had both Lauch (from German) and puri. Ottoman Turkish borrowed the Greek praso, which had become praso, and the form פְּרָסָה entered Ladino — which is why Sephardic families often call the vegetable פְּרָסָה to this day.

When Jewish immigration to Palestine revived Hebrew as a spoken language from the late 19th century, the leek's name had to be settled. Yehiel Mikhl Pines used כְּרֵשָׁה in his 1891 agricultural translation; agronomist Menashe Meyerovitz proposed חָצִיר a year later. The Language Committee (Vaad ha-Lashon) in 1930 listed four options: כְּרֵשָׁה, חָצִיר, כְּרָתֵי, and קַפְלוֹט. But the real competition arrived from an unexpected direction: the cooperative Tnuva, entering the vegetable-marketing business in the late 1930s, apparently began selling leeks under the name לוּף — borrowed from the German Lauch — even though לוּף already appears in the Mishnah (Pe'ah 6:10) as a completely different plant. By 1947 the misnomer was in wide use. The linguist Yitzhak Avinery appealed in print to use חָצִיר (1959) and later warned against לוּף, but it was too late. Today the formal written name is כְּרֵשָׁה, Sephardic speakers still say פְּרָסָה, and Ashkenazic speakers often still say לוּף — all referring to the same vegetable.

Key Quotes

"מצוה לתקן את הדבר בעוד מועד, בטרם נשתרש ונשתגר הלוף בפי כל" — Yitzhak Avinery, warning against לוּף, c. 1960

Timeline

• c. 3000 BCE: Proto-Semitic *karathu in use for leek
• c. 200 CE: כְּרֵשָׁה first attested in Hebrew (Mishnah, Kilayim 1:3)
• 11th–12th c.: Medieval commentators (Rashi, Maimonides) identify biblical חָצִיר as leek, in their respective vernaculars
• 1891: Yehiel Mikhl Pines uses כְּרֵשָׁה in "Torat Avodat ha-Adama"
• 1892: Agronomist Meyerovitz uses חָצִיר
• 1927: Tur-Sinai and Lazer dictionary lists both כְּרֵשָׁה and כְּרָתֵי
• 1930: Language Committee lists כְּרֵשָׁה, חָצִיר, כְּרָתֵי, קַפְלוֹט
• Late 1930s: Tnuva apparently begins marketing leeks as לוּף
• 1947: First documented use of לוּף for leek in Hebrew press
• 1959: Avinery calls for use of חָצִיר; ignores לוּף entirely
• c. 1960: Avinery acknowledges חָצִיר has no chance; warns against לוּף
• Present: כְּרֵשָׁה is official; לוּף and פְּרָסָה persist in spoken Hebrew

Related Words

• לוּף — Mishnaic plant (not leek); incorrectly used for leek since the late 1930s, from German Lauch
• פְּרָסָה — leek in Ladino and Sephardic Hebrew, from Ottoman Turkish prasa ← Greek prason
• חָצִיר — Biblical word, usually "grass/hay"; identified by rabbis as leek in Numbers 11:5
• כְּרָתֵי — Aramaic form of the same Semitic root
• קַפְלוֹט — Mishnaic borrowing from Greek kephaloton; another rabbinic name for leek
• בָּצָל — onion; mentioned alongside leek in the list of Egyptian vegetables
• שׁוּם — garlic; idem