Lovage

Description:

Both English lovage and German Liebstöckel seem to contain an element meaning love, but this is just a product of folk etymology. Instead, the two words are related to almost all names of lovage in current European languages, e.g., French livéche, Norwegian løpstikke, Finnish lipstikka, Estonian leeskputk, Latvian lupstājs, Czech libeček, Romanian leuștean;, Hungarian lestyán, Greek levistico [λεβιστικο] and Ukrainian lyubystok [любисток]. These names go back to Latin ligusticum, shortened from ligusticum apium Ligurian celery, because lovage was and is particularly plentiful in the Western Italian region called Liguria. For the derivation of apium, see celery. English lovage directly originates from Middle English loveache, which in turn was borrowed from Old French luvesche. The German name Maggi­kraut Maggi herb goes back to Maggi sauce, a condiment very popular in the 60s and 70s. It is a con­centrated, salted solution of browned and partially hydro­lyzed proteins in water with addi­tional flavour­ing; I cannot agree on its similarity to lovage aroma. There a few more analogous names in tongues of Central and Eastern Europe, e.g., Croatian Magi-začin Maggi condiment and Slovak Korenie Maggi maggi spice.