wild garlic
1
3.0
- noun
:
ajo silvestre
- He prepared a delicious pasta dish with wild garlic and fresh vegetables from the garden.
Examples
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A sweet smell of crushed mint and wild garlic came from the vegetation underneath.
Fiction book (2002) -
It's poached in shoyu and young ginger with local wild garlic.
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I have lots of dried chanterelles, and I hope it likes wild garlic.
Fiction book (2001) -
The ground by the river was all covered in wild garlic, bluebells, rake and robin and the like.
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Wild garlic grew here too, and a berry unknown to me, the chemsa, like our blueberries but larger and meatier.
Fiction book (2001) -
The only time he had visited his mother in the forest, just before he left for England, she had fed him a dish of wild mushrooms, wild garlic, and reindeer, washed down with this vodka.
Fiction book (1996) -
When the rabbi saw wild garlic, not only did he have to ensure that it didn't get into the wheat, but this was understood to indicate a patch of soil in need of more manure.
Blog text (12) -
There was a mushroom soup made of boletes, spring-beauty tubers, and pigeons with pine nuts, cattail roots with wild garlic.
Fiction book (1993) -
They smelled of the river, of the wild garlic and mint they had squashed underfoot, of the hot rank grass and the foul mud where the drain emptied.
Fiction book (1994) -
In spring, we often go foraging in the woods for wild garlic to add to our meals.
Synonyms
A wild plant with broad leaves that smell strongly of garlic
A wild plant with broad green leaves and a strong garlic smell that grows in damp woods
A wild plant with broad leaves and white flowers whose leaves smell like garlic and are edible
A wild plant with broad leaves that smell like garlic and grows in damp woods
A wild onion with a strong, sharp smell that grows from bulbs in lawns and fields
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'wild' (growing naturally, not cultivated) modifies 'garlic' (the plant), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to non-cultivated garlic found in nature. This compound is cross-linguistically common (e.g. 'ail des bois', 'ajo silvestre'), so the relation is predictable and transparent.
Etymology
Wild garlic gets its name from a simple picture: it grows in the wild (woods and fields) and its leaves smell and taste like garlic. That's why today 'wild garlic' means the strong-smelling plant with broad leaves that people sometimes pick to cook with.