cow-ˈparsnip
[cow n.1 9.]
1. A large umbelliferous plant, Heracleum Sphondylium, wild in Britain: so named by Turner.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 76 Sphondilium..It may be called in englishe Cowpersnepe or rough Persnepe. It groweth in watery middowes and in ranke groundes about hedges. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. lxvi. 528 Turner calleth it Cowe Parsnep, or Medo Parsnep. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 169 Cowparsnip or Wilde carrat growing in medows..Some seethe it in drinke with leuen, and vse it instead of Ale or Beere. 1882 Garden 6 May 306/2 Cow Parsnip..is in no way injurious to animals. |
2. Used as a generic name of all species of Heracleum, e.g. American C., H. lanatum, Giant C. of Kamtschatka, H. giganteum, etc.
| 1780 Coxe Russ. Disc. 52 There are no trees upon the island; it produces, however, the cow-parsnip which grows at Kamtchatka. |