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Glite Dictionary
fiddlehead

fiddlehead

1 8.9
The young curled top of a fern that is eaten as a vegetable
  • noun
  • /ˈfɪdəlˌhɛd/
  • US
translation icon : girofle
  • I'll fix you some fiddlehead broth tomorrow and send it over.
  • fiddlehead ferns
  • fiddlehead soup
  • wild fiddleheads

Examples

  • We also have homemade cavatelli with chanterelles and fiddlehead ferns.

  • Just my son and I, we have this joke about fiddlehead ferns.

    Nightbitch (2024)

  • So notice that the fiddlehead of the Fern and this.

  • Last spring he had showed Mike the fiddlehead ferns.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I found the first fiddleheads yesterday, out in the woods.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • As slowly as the fiddlehead ferns that lay a pale green carpet on the floor of the woods.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • "Fiddlehead soup."

    Fiction book (1998)

  • We also have homemade cavatelli with chanterelles and fiddlehead ferns.

    Nightbitch (2024)

  • There was venison and macaroni, and the spirals of green fiddleheads that her mother had harvested from the woods.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • For a short time in spring, the fiddleheads of the ostrich fern are edible.

Synonyms

fiddlehead fern
vsfiddlehead
  • US
1 7.4

Young curled fern leaves that people eat in spring

refers specifically to the young coiled frond itself rather than the whole plant

Compounds

fiddlehead fern
  • US
1 7.4

Young curled fern leaves that people eat in spring

Surface Forms

fiddlehead singular
fiddleheads plural

Morphology

fiddlehead = fiddle + head (semi-transparent) = fiddle + head

Formed by 'fiddle' + 'head' by resemblance, but the specific botanical meaning ('coiled fern frond') is a specialized metaphor not directly predictable by all learners.

Etymology

Fiddlehead comes from fiddle (a small 'violin') and head, because the young, curled fern looks like the carved 'head' or curved top of a fiddle. So the coiled young frond that people eat in spring is called a fiddlehead.