An archaic or dialectal name for chervil, a delicate herb in the parsley family used in cooking; also called 'cerfeuil' in French.
From Old French 'cerfeuil', derived from Latin 'caerefolium' or 'chaerophyllum' (the plant). The word reflects sound changes in English as French terms were adopted and adapted.
Cerfoil is a forgotten English word for an herb that's still beloved by French chefs—it shows how our kitchen vocabulary keeps changing, and words for the same ingredient get swapped in and out depending on which culture's cuisine is trending.
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