ˈhurt-sickle
[tr. med.L. blaptisecula, f. Gr. βλάπτ-ειν to hurt + L. secula sickle.]
A name for the Corn Bluebottle (Centaurea Cyanus), which grows among corn, and is apt to injure the edge of the sickle with its hard tough stem.
| [1551 Turner Herbal i. N iv a, Blew bottell..Sume herbaries call it baptisecula, or blaptisecula: because it hurteth sicles, whiche were ones called of olde wryters seculae.] 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. xii. 161 This floure..may also be called Hurte Sicle. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccxl. 594 In English it is called blewe Bottle..and hurt sickle. 1598 Florio, Barbarauoce, blew bottle, corne floure, or hurtsickle. 1829 Glover's Hist. Derby I. 124 Centaurea Cyanus..blue bottle, knapweed, hurt sickle or corn flower. |