pot-herb
(ˈpɒthɜːb)
[f. pot n.1 + herb.]
A herb grown for boiling in the pot; any of the herbs cultivated in a kitchen-garden.
black pot-herb, white pot-herb, old names for Alexanders (Smyrnium Olusatrum) and Corn-salad (Valerianella olitoria) respectively. (Gerarde 1597, 243.)
| 1538 Elyot, Caulis... Also an herbe called colewortes. It is somtyme taken for all pot herbes. 1605 Tryall Chev. ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 290 E're he do my Lord any wrong, zounds Ile be cut smaller then pot-hearbs. 1644 Evelyn Diary 20 Nov., The Circus Maximus,..one entire heape of rubbish, part of it converted into a garden of pot-herbs. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 369 A spot which seemed to be part of Holland, a straight canal, a terrace, rows of clipped trees, and rectangular beds of flowers and potherbs. |
¶ b. erron. = pot-plant.
| 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 101 Flowering pot-herbs garnished the sills of the..windows. |
c. attrib. pot-herb butterfly, a N. American species (Pieris oleracea), closely allied to the cabbage-butterfly.
| 1692 Dryden Cleomenes iii. i, A people, baser than the beasts they worship; Below their pot-herb gods, that grow in gardens. |