Chive
/tʃaɪv/noun
A small, onion-flavored herb with slender green leaves.
Did you know?Chive comes through Old French from Latin cepa, the everyday word for “onion,” which also gave English the botanical family name allium cepa for the common onion.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kap-
“to swell, bulge”
Latin
Latin
cepa
“onion”
Old French
Old French
cive
“chive; onion-like plant”
Middle English
English
chive
“a kind of small onion or onion-like herb”
Modern English
English
chive
“a small onion-flavored herb with slender leaves”