Etymology

mangelwurzel

M3A1N1G2E1L1W4U1R1Z10E1L1

Today it means: A root vegetable, variety of Beta vulgaris, cultivated chiefly as cattle feed. Full definition →

German Mangold
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The story

  1. German · borrowed fromMangold“chard”
  2. English todaymangelwurzel

From German Mangold (“chard”) + Wurzel (“root”), with the first part reinterpreted as Mangel, whence the archaic English name "root of scarcity".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.