▪ I. cress
(krɛs)
Forms: 1 cresse, cerse, cærse, 1–6 kerse, 4 carse, crasse, kers, cres, 4–8 cresse, 6 kars, 6–7 karsse, 6– cress. Pl. 1 -an, 2–5 -en; 5–6 kersis, 5– cresses, 6–7 creeses (still dial.).
[OE. cresse, cerse = OLG. *kressa fem., MDu., MLG. kerse, Du. kers (also MLG. karse, LG. (Bremen) kasse), OHG. chressa f. (chresso m.), MHG. and mod.Ger. kresse, app. of native origin:—OTeut. *krasjôn-, from root of OHG. chresan to creep, as if ‘creeper’. The Da. karse, Sw. krasse, Norw. kars, Lettish kresse, Russ. kress, appear to be adopted from Ger. For the metathesis of r, in cresse, cerse, cf. grass.
The synonymous Romanic words, It. crescione, F. cresson, Picard kerson, Cat. crexen, med.L. crissonus (9th c. Littré) are generally held to be from German, though popularly associated with L. crēscĕre to grow (as if from a L. type crēsciōn-em) with reference to the rapid growth of the plant.]
1. The common name of various cruciferous plants, having mostly edible leaves of a pungent flavour. (Until 19th c. almost always in pl.; sometimes construed with a verb in the singular.) a. spec. garden cress, Lepidium sativum, or watercress, Nasturtium officinale.
| a 700 [see b]. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 116 Ðeos wyrt..þe man nasturcium, & oðrum naman cærse nemneð. Ibid. II. 68 Do earban to and cersan and smale netelan and beowyrt. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. ix. 322 With carses [v.r. crasses, cresses] and oþer herbes. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 218 Now cresses sowe. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 39 Cressiones, gall. cressouns, anglice cressen. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 9 b, Onyons, Rokat, Karses [1561 Kersis]. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 55 Nasturtium is called..in englishe Cresse or Kerse. 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. lix. 623 Cresses are commonly sowen in all gardens. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 195 Sow also Carrots, Cabbages, Cresses, Nasturtium. 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Cresses, an Herb us'd in Sallets; It has no Singular Number. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 132 To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread. 1830 Tennyson Ode to Memory 59 The brook that loves To purl o'er matted cress and ribbed sand. 1855 ― Brook 181, I loiter round my cresses. |
b. With defining words, applied to many different cruciferous plants, and occasionally to plants of other families resembling cress in flavour or appearance: as
American cress or Belleisle cress, Barbarea præcox; Australian c. = golden c.; bank c., Sisymbrium officinale, also Barbarea præcox; bastard c., Thlaspi arvense; bitter c., the genus Cardamine, esp. C. amara; brown c. = watercress; churl's c., Lepidium campestre; cow-c. = prec.; also Helosciadium nodiflorum and Veronica Beccabunga (Brit. & Holl.); dock-c., Lapsana communis; French c., Barbarea vulgaris; garden c., Lepidium sativum; golden c., a variety of prec.; Indian c., the genus Tropæolum; lamb's c., Cardamine hirsuta; land c., Barbarea vulgaris, B. præcox, and Cardamine hirsuta; meadow c., Cardamine pratensis; mouse-ear c., Arabis Thaliana; penny-c., Thlaspi arvense; pepper-c., Teesdalia nudicaulis (Miller Plant-n.); Peter's c., Crithmum maritimum (Treas. Bot.); rock c., the genus Arabis; also Crithmum maritimum (Treas. Bot.); Spanish c., Lepidium Cardamines; spring c., Cardamine rhomboidea; swine's c., Senebiera Coronopus; Thale c., Arabis Thaliana; tooth-c., the genus Dentaria; tower c., Arabis Turrita; town c., Lepidium sativum; violet c., Ionopsidium acaule; wall c., the genus Arabis; wart c. = swine's cress; winter c., the genus Barbarea; wild c., species of Thlaspi; yellow c., Nasturtium palustre and N. amphibium.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 676 Nasturcium, tuuncressa. a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 676 Nasturcium, leccressae. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 94 Eacersan ᵹetrifula oððe ᵹeseoð on buteran. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 42 Town cresses, and cresses that growene in flode. 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 44 Irio is named in greeke Erisimon, in englishe wynter cresse. 1562 ― Herbal ii. 20 b, It may be called in Englishe way-cresses, wilde cresses, or sciatica cresses, because the herbe is good for the sciatica. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lxiv. 95 We do now call it Coronopus Ruellij..in some places of England they call it Swynescressis. Ibid. v. lix. 623 This herbe is called..in English, Cresses, Towne Kars, or Towne Cresses. Ibid. v. lxii. 627 There be foure kindes of wilde Cresse, or Thlaspi, the which are not..vnlyke cresse in taste. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. xiv. (1623) 253 This beautiful plant is called..in English Indian Cresses. Ibid., Banke Cresses is found in stonie places. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 158 Water-Cresse, or Karsse, is.. of like nature..as Towne-Karsse is. 1711 Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 381 The largest of these Leaves resemble our Wart or Swines Cress. 1851 Balfour Bot. §822 The unripe fruit of Tropæolum majus, common Indian cress, has been pickled and used as capers. 1866 Treas. Bot. 347 Australian Cress, the Golden Cress, a broad yellowish-leaved variety of Lepidium sativum. |
† 2. As the type of something of little worth or significance; in such phrases as not worth a cress (kerse), not to count (a thing) at a cress. Obs. (Cf. rush, straw.)
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 343 For anger gaynez þe not a cresse. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 17 Wisdome and witte now is nouȝt worth a carse [v.r. kerse]. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 5443 Þe Amerel ne dredeþ hym noȝt..þe value of a kerse. c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 570 Of paramours ne sette he nat a kers. a 1440 Sir Degrev. 191 Y counte hyme nat at a cres. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as cress-flower, cress-green, cress-taste; cress-rocket, a name for the cruciferous genus Vella (Treas. Bot. 1866).
| 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-watch 332 The Cresse Tastes, Mustard-Seed, Spirit of Scurvy-Grass. 1813 Hogg Queen's Wake ii. Wks. (1876) 32 And pu' the cress-flower round the spring. 1883 Cassell's Fam. Mag. Oct. 698/2 The velvet is the new cress-green..known by the name of ‘cresson’. |
▪ II. cress
var. of crease, crest3; obs. f. kris.