Herb

Podcast 1 · Introduction

Herb

A documentary-style narration: origin, meaning, and feel.

Part of speech

noun

Pronunciation

hurb (UK) / urb (US)  /hɜːb/ (UK), /ɜːrb/ (US)

Definition

A plant used for flavouring food, for its medicinal properties, or for its scent; in botany, any seed-producing plant that does not produce a woody stem and dies back to the ground at the end of the growing season.

Plain meaning

An herb is a plant used in cooking, medicine, or perfumery — basil, rosemary, mint, chamomile, lavender. In botany, a herb is any non-woody flowering plant. The pronunciation is notably different between British English (hurb, with the h) and American English (urb, silent h).

Register

Neutral and universal. Herb is one of the most common words in both culinary and botanical vocabulary. The pronunciation difference between British and American English is a frequent cultural touchstone but causes no communicative difficulty.