On May 28, 1:53 pm, Charlie Pridham
wrote:
In article ,
says...



In article ,
Charlie Pridham writes:
| I was at a plant sale over the weekend and during a quiet time was
| talking to Mark Walsh of Trecanna nurseries and he sells House Leeks
| (among other things) none of us in the group knew why they have their
| common name, The House bit it ok as people grew them on roofs etc but
| Leek?

The OED says that it's Old English, but gives no hint as to why it
is the only non-bulbous plant called a leek. Given the age of the
word, the reasons are unlikely to emerge if the future!

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks for that.

intrigued I have looked further and found that leac the old english/saxon
word means plant so the name translates as house plant. They appear to
have been grown on house because of the flowers supposed resemblance to
Thor or Jupiter's beard. The site below says the Romans were pretty keen
on them.
That will have to do me I suspect!http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/h/houlee41.html
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwallwww.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

The modern German word Lauch is now used to mean Leek and occasionally
Scallion/Spring Onion.
There are some variations like Knoblauch for Garlic (knob leek - great
name) but these days the word is only used in a very narrow sense like
in English. The original meaning that you describe/found is
interesting. Clearly words can change their range of use over time.