パセリ

Parsley is the English source form behind Japanese パセリ, and Kotobank's Nihon Kokugo Daijiten gives the 1872 cookbook 西洋料理通 as an early Japanese citation. English parsley comes from Middle English forms such as persely, with Old French peresil or persil behind it; French in turn goes back to Latin petroselinum and Greek petroselinon, "rock celery." The plant itself is native to the Mediterranean area, and Japanese dictionaries also record the older Japanese name オランダゼリ. During the Meiji period after 1868, Western food terms entered Japanese through cookbooks, hotels, navy menus, and 洋食 restaurants in Tokyo and Yokohama. パセリ joined words such as ソース, カレー, コロッケ, and サラダ as a kitchen term, but it also became tied to plate presentation. The meaning moved from a herb used for flavor to a vegetable that often sits beside fried food, steak, or bento items as garnish. Modern Japanese keeps パセリ close to English parsley, but the everyday image is often curly parsley or dried パセリ flakes. English parsley can include flat-leaf parsley without a special label; Japanese often says イタリアンパセリ when that type matters. A short menu phrase such as パセリのみじん切り means chopped parsley, while 皿の端のパセリ points to the Japanese garnish use.