cleavers, clivers
(ˈkliːvəz, ˈklɪvəz)
Forms: 5 cliure, clyure, 6–7 clyuer, cleuer (cleuer grasse), 7 cleauer, clauer, (? clives), 6–9 cliver; 6 cleeuers, 6– 7 clyuers, 6–9 clivers, 7–9 cleavers.
[In OE. clife (= OHG. chliba, LG. klive, klieve, f. root of clifian to adhere, stick) was applied to the burdock, and smæle clife to Galium Aparine. The ME. repr. of this would be clĭve. Instead of it, either by confusion with cliver, clivre ‘claw, talon’, or as agent n. from the verb clive, cleave, we find from 15th c. clivre, cliver, and at a later date, cleavers, as if ‘things which cleave’.
(Upper Ger. has kleber, klebere (Grimm 1050), Ger. klebekraut, E. Fris. klîf, in same sense. Cf. also Du. klijve, kleve, ‘lappa’, bur-dock, and ‘kliff ivy’, Kilian.]
The climbing plant Galium Aparine or Goosegrass, which adheres by its minute hooked bristles to hedges or shrubs, the clothes of passers-by, etc.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 22 Menge þær wið þa smalan clifan. a 1100 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 297 (Nomina herbarum), Apasina, clife. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 157 Rubea minor..cliure [v.r. clyure] uel tongebledes. 1551 Turner Herbal i. D iij a, Gooshareth called also Clyuer because it cleueth vpon mennes clothes. 1552 Huloet, Cliuers or goslynge wede, rueba minor. 1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples 50 (Brit. & Holl.) [It] wil cleave to men or women's clothes, and therfore some do cal it clever grasse. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. lxxiv. 538 Cliuer or Goosegrasse. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Amor de hortelano, cleeuers, Aparine. 1611 Cotgr., Riéble, Cleauer, Clauer, Goose-share, Loueman, Goose-grasse. 1677 Grew Anat. Plants iv. iv. iii. §12 Goos-grass or Cliver. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 98/2 Goose-grass, or Cleavers, hath six rough hairy leaves..in whorles. 1779 Mrs. Delany Corr. Ser. ii. II. 424 The juice of clivers or goose grass. 1880 Jefferies Hodge & M. I. 220 The dogs were all over cleavers sticking to their coats. |