What does “Spitzkohl” mean in German?

Spitzkohl names the cone-shaped sweetheart cabbage by its most obvious feature: its pointed head. Spitz means pointed or sharp, Kohl means cabbage — and that two-part pattern is how German names almost every cabbage variety. Once you know it, the whole family unlocks: Rotkohl (red cabbage), Weißkohl (white cabbage), Blumenkohl (cauliflower — literally “flower-cabbage”). German labels vegetables by what you can see, making dozens of produce names instantly guessable.

The cook calls for “500 g Spitzkohl” — the tender, cone-shaped head you’ll spot at any German market by its tapered tip. The same spitz- prefix turns up across the language wherever something comes to a point: Spitzmaus (shrew, literally “pointed mouse”), Bergspitze (mountain peak), anspitzen (to sharpen a pencil). Kohl itself traces back to Latin caulis (“stalk”), the same root as cauliflower in English — so the word families are older cousins.