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chickweed

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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common chickweed (Stellaria media)

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English chykwed, chykewode, chike wed, chikewed, chekwede, a variant of chykynwede, chekyn-wede, cheken-wede (literally “chicken-weed”), equivalent to chick +‎ weed.

Etymonline claims the name was apparently applied to many plants fit for chicken feed, which were called in Old English cicene mete (“chicken food”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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chickweed (usually uncountable, plural chickweeds)

  1. Any of several small-leaved herbs of the genera Cerastium and Stellaria.
    1. especially common chickweed (Stellaria media), a common, edible weed in North America and Europe.
      • 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:
        I look at the little sprigs of chickweed trembling among the bean shoots and I am strangely moved. Such steadfastness! Such yearning! They want to live too. That is all they ask: to have their little moment in the world.
    2. Stellaria pro parte
    3. Cerastium (mouse-ear chickweed)
  2. Other plants of similar appearance and habit, including those of species:
    1. Ageratum conyzoides
    2. Holosteum (jagged chickweed)
    3. Moenchia (upright chickweed)
    4. Paronychia spp. (nailwort, whitlow-wort)

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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