Italian vegetable marrow
- noun
- UK
:
calabacín italiano
- The recipe calls for one Italian vegetable marrow, diced and sautéed with garlic.
Examples
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She stuffed the Italian vegetable marrow with rice, herbs, and tomatoes for dinner.
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Farmers at the market were selling freshly harvested Italian vegetable marrows this morning.
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I bought some Italian vegetable marrows at the market.
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Have you tried cooking with Italian vegetable marrow?
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The chef prepared a delicious dish using Italian vegetable marrow and fresh basil.
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At the farmers' market, I found large, organic Italian vegetable marrows ready for sale.
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For a healthy meal, I roasted Italian vegetable marrow with olive oil and herbs.
Synonyms
68
1.6
A large edible fruit from plants like pumpkin or zucchini used as a vegetable
1
4.7
A large green vegetable like a squash with pale flesh
1
6.4
A long green summer squash with pale inside that people eat
A long green vegetable like a large zucchini with pale inside used for cooking
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'Italian' (from Italy) + 'vegetable' + 'marrow' (a type of squash) yields the interpretation of a squash/vegetable variety associated with Italy. This follows a straightforward modifier + noun pattern common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Italian vegetable marrow comes from the word marrow, which once meant the 'soft inside of bones', and people began calling large, soft squash 'marrow' because their inside is soft like bone marrow. So an Italian vegetable marrow is simply a big, soft 'squash' from Italy used for cooking.