Crudités


Crudités are traditional French appetizers consisting of sliced or whole raw vegetables which are typically dipped in a vinaigrette or other dipping sauce. Examples of crudités include celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, bell pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, and asparagus spears.

Etymology

Crudités is a French term, literally "raw things", from Middle French crudité and directly from Latin cruditatem, from crudus "rough; not cooked, raw, bloody," from PIE *krue-do-, from PIE *kreue- which meant "raw meat", and is the source of the English word "raw". According to Merriam-Webster the term appears to have been first used in 1960, from the plural of crudité or "rawness", itself deriving from the Latin cruditas for "indigestion" or "undigested food", coming in turn from crudus for "raw".