'arugula' originates from Italian, specifically the word 'rucola' (also attested as 'arugola'), where the Latin word 'eruca' meant 'a kind of cabbage' or 'cole'.

'arugula' changed from Latin 'eruca' into Italian 'rucola'/'arugola' and was later adopted into modern English as 'arugula' (with U.S. usage becoming common in the 19th–20th centuries).

Initially it referred broadly to a 'kind of cabbage/cole' (Latin 'eruca'); over time the meaning narrowed to the specific peppery leafy salad green now called 'arugula' (Eruca sativa).