The word carrot is used for both the whole plant and its more or less elongated tuberous root, which is eaten as a vegetable. Carrots are grown in all of the planet's temperate zones.

They originated in Asia Minor (Turkey), where they grew wild. Ancient people ate carrots mainly for their ability to improve sight, but this vegetable was not really fully appreciated. Pliny referred to it by the name pasticana gallica (food for Gauls). This name still lives on in certain regions of France, where « pastenade » is the word for carrot. The carrot became cultivated in around the 10th century in Central Asia. It was often purple or yellow. In the 13th century in Western Europe, the carrot appears to have been used as an aromatic. It began to be cultivated as a vegetable in the 15th century, when it was mainly yellow. The orange carrot appeared in the 16th century, the result of a cross between the yellow and red carrots made by the Dutch, who wanted to show their loyalty to the House of Orange, a protestant principality in France. It quickly supplanted all the other varieties.

The European carrot was taken to the Americas during the second half of the 16th century, probably in 1565. Although it was quickly adopted by the native American peoples, it only became popular in the United States in the early 20th century, after the discovery of carotene. There it is now one of the most widely grown vegetables as a result of the high demand by Americans for carrot juice.