Indian salad
- noun
- US
:
ensalada india
- The leaves of Indian salad can be added to fresh salads for a peppery flavor.
Examples
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She picked some Indian salad from her garden to serve with dinner.
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In the southeastern United States, Indian salad grows wild in moist woodlands.
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I love Indian salad in my lunch.
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Have you tried Indian salads before?
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In the southeastern United States, Indian salad grows wild in moist woodlands.
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The leaves of Indian salad can be added to fresh salads for a peppery flavor.
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She picked some Indian salad from her garden to serve with dinner.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A plant with white flowers whose leaves people eat as greens
A showy perennial herb with white flowers that grows in moist southeastern United States forests and has young edible leaves
A plant that lives for many years and has white or pale purple flowers and leaves you can eat
A plant with white flowers whose young leaves are eaten as salad greens in the southeastern United States
A plant that lives for more than one year with white flowers whose leaves are eaten as greens
Surface Forms
Morphology
Indian + salad
The phrase combines known words 'Indian' and 'salad', so learners might guess a food item or a salad green related to India; however, its actual sense is a lexicalized plant name (a perennial herb) and 'Indian' here may signal an ethnogeographic or traditional name rather than origin. Because the constituents give a partial clue but do not reliably predict the specific botanical meaning, it is not fully transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Indian salad may come from early settlers who saw Native Americans eating the plant's tender leaves like a salad. That's why the name describes a wild herb whose leaves people would 'eat' as greens.