Category:Garlic

Gar"lic, n. Etym: [OE. garlek, AS. garleác; gar spear, lance + leác leek. See Gar, n., and Leek.]

1. (Bot.)

Defn: A plant of the genus Allium (A. sativum is the cultivated variety), having a bulbous root, a very strong smell, and an acrid, pungent taste. Each root is composed of several lesser bulbs, called cloves of garlic, inclosed in a common membranous coat, and easily separable.

2. A kind of jig or farce. [Obs.] Taylor (1630). Garlic mustard, a European plant of the Mustard family (Alliaria officinalis) which has a strong smell of garlic. -- Garlic pear tree, a tree in Jamaica (Cratæva gynandra), bearing a fruit which has a strong scent of garlic, and a burning taste.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Garlic - (Heb. shum, from its strong odor), mentioned only once (Numbers 11:5). The garlic common in Eastern countries is the Allium sativum or Allium Ascalonicum, so called from its having been brought into Europe from Ascalon by the Crusaders. It is now known by the name of "shallot" or "eschalot."