The story
- Old French · derived fromterre
- Arabic · derived fromكُرْكُم“Curcuma”
- Middle English · inherited fromturmeryte
- English todayturmeric
From Middle English turmeryte, tarmaret, of uncertain origin. Possibly corrupted from Arabic كُرْكُم (kurkum, “Curcuma”) or from Old French terre mérite (“deserving earth”), potentially as a folk etymology of the Arabic.
Words from the same roots
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.