asparagus
(əˈspærəgəs)
Forms: α. 1, 6 (med.L.) sparagi. β. 6–8 sperage, 7 sperach, sparage, asparage. γ. 6– asparagus. δ. 7 sparagus, 7–8 sparagras, 7–9 sparrowgrass.
[L., a. Gr. ἀσπάραγος, properly ἀσϕάραγος, of doubtful origin. In med.L. often sparagus, sparagi (OIt. sparagi, sparaci), found in Eng. c 1000. Thence also mod.It. sparagio, G. spargen, MF. esperage, and Eng. sperage, the common name in 16th and early 17th c., occas., from etymological notions, made sperach (after smallache, smallage, etc.: see ache n.2), or sparage. About 1600 the influence of herbalists and horticultural writers made asparagus familiar, and this in the aphetic form 'sparagus at length displaced sperage, but was itself by popular etymol. corrupted before 1650 to sparagrass, sparrow-grass, which remained the polite name during the 18th c. Botanists still wrote asparagus, but according to Walker Pron. Dict. 1791, ‘Sparrow-grass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry.’ During the 19th century asparagus returned into literary and polite use, leaving sparrow-grass to the illiterate; though ‘grass’ still occured in cookery books.]
1. A plant (Asparagus officinalis, family Liliaceæ) cultivated for the sake of its vernal shoots, which form a well-known delicacy of the table. Bot. The genus which contains this among many other species.
| α c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 188 Genim þysse wyrte wyrt-truman þe man sparagi agrestis..nemneð. 1555 Fardle Facions i. iii. 37 Ther be sene also Sparagi, of no lesse notable bigguenesse. |
| β 1548 Turner Names of Herbes (1881) 17 Asparagus..of the poticaries sparagus, in Englishe Sperage, in Duche Spargen, in French Esperage. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie iii. 19 Some reporte..that of Rammes hornes buried, or hidde in the grounde, is broughte forthe an Herbe, called Asparagus, in Englishe, Sperage. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong., Des asperges, Sparage. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 27 There is a middle sort of these Sperages, not so ciuill and gentle as the Asparagi of the garden. 1606 ― Sueton. 77 Quicker..than Sparages can be sodden. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 300 Next Nesis stands with Sperage stored. 1669 Digby Closet Open. (1677) 220 Chop some of the Asparages among it. That hath served for Sparages. 1711 Greenwood Eng. Gram. 190 Sperage which the Vulgar wrest to Sparograss or Sparrowgrass from Asparagus or Sparagus. |
| γ 1548 Turner [see in β]. 1551 ― Herbal (1568) 51 Sperage is called in Latin Asparagus. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. cccclvii. 1112 Called..likewise Asparagus after the Latine name. 1632 Massinger City Mad. iii. i, The gardens Where we traffic for asparagus. 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. ii. ii. 136 Have you this Spring eaten any Asparagus yet? 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 270 Aromatick and balsamick as Saffron, Asparagus, Nutmeg. 1855 W. White Walk to Land's End xi. 232 Around you grow the wild asparagus..and samphire. |
| δ 1611 Cotgr., Asperges pierreus, Stone Sparage, wild Sparagus. 1618 B. Holyday Juvenal 221 To gather sperage, or, as it is brokenly called from the Latin's, sparagus. 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. ii. ii. 137, I will have Sparagus every meale all the yeare long. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improver Impr. (1652) 237 [The Hop plant] comes up with severall sprouts like Sparrowgrass. 1667 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 307 Brought with me from Fenchurch Street, a hundred of Sparrowgrass. 1668 Ibid. 22 Apr., Over to the 'sparagus garden. 1706 Phillips, Asparagus, a Plant call'd Sparrow-grass by the Common People. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 150 ¶6 A Dish of Chickens and Sparagrass. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Sparagrass, Sparagrass may be soon had. 1734 Gibson Dispens. iii. iii. 131 Sparrow-grass. 1738 Swift Wks. 1755 IV. i. 276 Ripe 'sparagrass, Fit for lad or lass. 1785 Cowper Lett., In May we shall have 'sparagus. 1801 Southey in C. Southey Life II. 154 Sparagrass (it ought to be spelt so) and artichokes, good with plain butter. a 1845 Hood Town & Country iv, Grass..That makes no hay—called sparrow-grass By folks of vulgar tongue! |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
asparagus-bed, also
transf. (sometimes
ellipt.), an anti-tank obstacle (
slang);
asparagus-garden,
asparagus-tip,
asparagus-tongs, etc.
asparagus-bean U.S., a tropical American bean (
Dolichos sesquipedalis);
asparagus-beetle, a small beetle (
Crioceris Asparagi) that feeds upon the foliage of the asparagus;
asparagus pea, the Goa bean;
asparagus stone (
Min.), a yellowish-green variety of apatite.
| 1856 Cozzens Sparrowgr. Papers vii. 85 The asparagus bean, a sort of long-winded esculent, inclined to be prolific in strings. |
| 1733 Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farming xxxv. 257, I remember..the case of an Asparagus Bed. 1761 Fitzgerald in Phil. Trans. LII. 73 Apple-trees, planted in asparagus beds. 1939 War Illustr. 16 Dec. 426 Anti-tank ‘asparagus’, which consists of railway lines set in concrete at an angle of 45 degrees pointing towards the enemy lines and in some cases with high-explosive caps. 1943 Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 12 Asparagus bed, a form of anti-tank obstacle, designed to slow up the A[rmoured] F[ighting] V[ehicle] while it comes under fire. |
| 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) I. 158 The asparagus beetle and its larvæ feed upon the foliage after the heads branch out. |
| 1618 B. Holyday Juvenal 77 Thy patrone's fish, Deck'd round with sperage⁓buds. |
| 1642 Declar. Lords & Com. 19 May 45 Hee should be with them that night at the Sparragus Garden at Supper. |
| 1859 A. Van Buren Sojourn in South 155 The Asparagus Pea, with a small round pod that grows from a foot to three in length, makes a choice dish at table. 1958 Times 1 Feb. 9/6 An oddity among the peas is the so-called ‘asparagus pea’, which makes a spreading plant and produces flanged, rectangular pods. |
| 1816 Cleaveland Min. 132 Asparagus stone..in consequence of its so frequently exhibiting an asparagus green color. |
| 1932 H. Simpson Boomerang x. 264, I remember particularly asparagus-tips rolled up in brown-bread. 1965 J. Wainwright Death in Sleeping City i. 44 The appetising meal of braised cutlets, chipped potatoes and asparagus tips. |
| 1851 Art Jrnl. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 142/1 The Asparagus tongs..an elegant appendage to the dinner-table. |