Turnip (terminology) explained

The word "turnip" can refer to any of the following four vegetables:

Regional differences in terminology

Regional differences in terminology are summarised in the table below.

Scientific name
Brassica rapa rapa

Brassica napus or B. napobrassica

Pachyrhizus

Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus
Southern England, South Yorkshire, most Commonwealth countriesturnipswede (from "swedish turnip")yammooli
Scotland, northern England, Ireland, Isle of Manwhite turnipturnip, yellow turnip or "neep"yammooli
Cornwallturnipturnip mooli
United Statesturniprutabaga or yellow turnipjicamadaikon
Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines  turnipchai tow, chai tau (Hokkien and Teochew: Chinese: 菜頭)
Hong Kong  turnip;[1] lobak, lo pak (Cantonese: Chinese: 蘿蔔)
also calledwhite turnip or summer turnipyellow turnip or winter turnipsweet turnip

Brassica napus and B. napobrassica are mostly called swedes (a shortening of Swedish turnip) in England, especially in the South, and in most dialects of the Commonwealth. Rutabaga, from the Swedish Swedish: rotabagga, for "root bag" is mostly used in North America, in the United States and some parts of Canada. The rutabaga or swede differs from the turnip (Brassica rapa) in that it is typically larger and yellow-orange rather than white. In the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Atlantic Canada, the yellow-fleshed variety are referred to as "turnips", whilst the white-fleshed variety are called "white turnips".

However, in some dialects of British English the two vegetables have overlapping or reversed names: in the north of England and Scotland, the larger, yellow variety may be called "yellow turnip" or "neep", while the smaller white variety are called "swede" or "white turnip". The yellow-fleshed type are known as "narkies" in Sunderland, and in past years used to be hollowed out and used as lanterns at Halloween, [2] as was the case in Scotland, before the acceptance of the American-style Halloween pumpkin. In the Isle of Man, Turnips are still used for Halloween (‘Hop Tu Naa’) lanterns, in place of pumpkins.

Other vegetables

Kohlrabi is also called German turnip, turnip cabbage or cabbage turnip,[3] although there the stem, not the root, is the enlarged part.

References

  1. Cummings, Patrick J., and Hans-Georg Wolf. A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor (p. 178). 1st ed., Hong Kong University Press, 2011.
  2. News: Are 'neeps' swedes or turnips?. Susan. Smillie. 25 January 2010. The Guardian. 4 December 2018.
  3. dict.leo.org accessed 24-May-2009 12:40 PM CEST