cilantro

Cilantro is the American English name for the fresh leaves and stems of Coriandrum sativum, the coriander plant. The word comes directly from Spanish cilantro, which is itself a variant of the Old Spanish culantro, derived from the Latin coriandrum. The Latin word came from Greek koriannon or koriandron, of uncertain pre-Greek origin — possibly from a Mediterranean substrate language. The Spanish transformation from coriandrum to culantro to cilantro involved the familiar sound shifts of Ibero-Romance phonology: the initial syllable altered, the medial consonant softened. English borrowed the Spanish form intact in the context of Mexican and Latin American cuisine.

The plant itself is among the oldest cultivated herbs known. Coriander seeds have been found in Neolithic sites and in ancient Egyptian tombs, including that of Tutankhamun (c. 1323 BCE). It is mentioned in the Sanskrit Rigveda, in ancient Chinese medical texts, in the Hebrew Bible (Exodus describes manna as resembling coriander seed), and in the Sanskrit Ayurvedic texts. The ancient Greeks and Romans used it extensively. The Mediterranean world domesticated it millennia before Spain had a word for it.

In British English, both the leaves and the seeds are called 'coriander.' The leaf is simply 'fresh coriander' or 'coriander leaf.' American English, influenced by Mexican and Latin American cuisine through proximity and immigration, adopted the Spanish name cilantro specifically for the leaf, while keeping 'coriander' for the dried seed — creating a terminology divide within a single language for a single plant. This split reflects the different culinary traditions that most shaped American and British food: Britain influenced by South Asian cuisine (where coriander is used in both forms), America by Latin American cuisine (where the fresh leaf is the dominant form and carries the Spanish name).

Cilantro is also notable in science for a well-documented genetic component to taste perception: a significant minority of people (approximately four to fourteen percent in various studies) experience cilantro as tasting of soap or insects. Research has linked this perception to variants of the OR6A2 olfactory receptor gene, which is sensitive to the aldehydes that give cilantro its characteristic aroma. The soap-taste experience is most common in people of European ancestry. The genetic angle has made cilantro a popular example in popular science writing about the biological basis of taste preferences.